


Forgettable

by Peepasaurus



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (Gaster Themes), Amnesia, Angst, Babybones (Undertale), Backstory, Big Brother Sans (Undertale), Bullying, Friendship, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Mystery, POV Undyne (Undertale), Panic Attacks, Papyrus (Undertale)-centric, Pre-Canon, Protective Sans (Undertale), Supernatural Elements, Younger Brother Papyrus (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 02:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 45,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peepasaurus/pseuds/Peepasaurus
Summary: After the world went dark, everyone lost a few memories.But some forgot more than others.Papyrus couldn't decipher what was real or an illusion.What was a nightmare or a memory.What it meant to keep hearing the words, 'I am here'.
Relationships: Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Undyne (Undertale)
Comments: 60
Kudos: 114





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne becomes a hero.

Undyne ran through the creeks and streams, past the long grass and deeper into the caves. At the young age of twelve, she was a warrior. She was Undyne the undying, born to fight for monsterkind. And everyday she would train harder to pursue her destiny. 

When she reached the main river, Undyne skipped across the stones to balance on a sturdy rock in the center of the river. She then closed her eye and listened to the running water. 

She focused on taking deep breaths and the beating of her heart. “I am determined,” she whispered. “I can feel everyone’s souls within me, together as one.”

And she could. Everyone’s hearts were beating with hers. But there was one heart, one soul, that didn’t match with everyone else’s rhythm. They were in pure distress, pure fear, pure danger.

Undyne couldn’t help herself when she reached out to this soul. She could feel her hands grasp at the air, and her shoes were no longer touching the stone. Their soul was growing closer and closer to her, she could almost touch it. She could feel it’s panic, terror, and begs for help. 

She called out to this soul from the bottom of her’s. “Don’t give up! Stay determined! I believe in you!”

And then the world shook. When Undyne opened her eye, she was floating several feet in the air. However, a second after she could see, she fell into the water. Undyne was stunned at first. The ground was quavering and small rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Realizing that she was being swept away by the river, she quickly swam to the shore and laid on her back while the Underground continued to tremble. She could see nothing but the stones on the ceiling that shone like stars. “Stay determined…” she whispered. 

Then the world went dark. 


	2. When the World Went Dark

“Where were you when the world went dark?”

It was a question everyone asked. The answers were quite fun. _‘I was drinking tea, but when the world went dark, it spilled all over me!' ‘When the world went dark, I tripped over an echo flower! I didn’t know you could trip over those!'_

“Where were you when the world went dark?” Aaron asked again.

Undyne threw away her thoughts and brought herself back to reality. She was sitting in the small cave that was the Waterfall school, with all of her fellow classmates. Her friend Aaron was sitting next to her, waiting for a response. 

Undyne sighed. She didn’t have a fun story about when the world went dark. Like everyone else, she had a hard time remembering what happened. The world had gone dark a couple months ago now and everyone was basically over it. “I was swimming in the river,” she finally replied. 

Aaron gasped. “How were you able to swim when the world-”

“I got to the shore before that happened,” Undyne interrupted. “So I guess the true answer is that I was just laying there.” She hated that her story was so lame. 

“Oh,” Aaron nodded. He was slightly shaking, as if he had something that he really wanted to say. 

Undyne smiled at the realization. “Where were you when-”

“Well, I’m so glad you asked!” Aaron was suddenly full of energy. “I was having a flexing contest with my brother! And when the world went dark, I flexed harder than I ever have before. So technically I won the contest, even though no one could see that final flex. But that’s ok! At least _I_ know that I’m the strongest monster to ever live!”

Undyne snorted. “I bet I could beat you in a flexing contest!”

“You could not!”

“Could to!”

“Fine!” Aaron pounded his fists to the ground. “Let’s having a flexing contest, right after school!”

“I can’t wait!” Undyne sneered.

“Alright students, listen up!” Gerson commanded as he entered the cave. Undyne bubbled with excitement. 

“Hello, Gerson!” she greeted loudly. “Aaron and I are going to have a flexing contest after school today!”

“That’s great,” the old turtle chuckled. “Today, children, we are going to learn about-”

“Are we going to learn about the Royal Guard?” she interrupted. 

Gerson looked both annoyed and amused at the same time. “Undyne, why don’t you just let me do the talking today?”

“But you always do the talking!” Undyne protested as she stood up. She then ran next to Gerson to face the small class of little monsters. Most of them looked entertained, although some seemed annoyed with her. Napstablook seemed like he was unsure how to feel. 

“The Royal Guard is really cool!” she announced to the class. “They go around and save monsters who are in danger! They are also the ones that fight any humans that come down here.” Undyne demonstrated by punching the air. “When I grow up, I’m gonna be head of the Royal Guard, because I am Undyne, the strongest warrior to ever exist! Speaking of strength, I would also like to inform you all that Aaron and I will be having a flexing contest after school, and you are encouraged to come out and support me.” She stomped her foot when she finished her presentation. 

Gerson looked down at her with a smile. “Ya done?”

“Yes!” she nodded dutifully. She then went back to sit with Aaron.

Since the world had gone dark, not much has changed. Undyne recently turned thirteen, which she celebrated vigorously. The older she got, the closer she was to being the warrior she always dreamed of. She would go back to the river many times to train. Undyne wanted to be ready to do anything, no matter how young she was. 

Sometimes while at the river, she would remember something from the day the world went dark. The stones were twinkling above her head. She was laying down and the ground was trembling. She was soaked from falling in the river. She was reaching out for someone.

But every time she thought about it, her head would burn with pain. Undyne hated it. She felt powerless from the fact that she couldn’t remember her own memories. Her own brain was attacking her, refusing to let her know what had happened on that strange day. Undyne should have just gotten over it like everyone else had, but she knew there was something more going on here. Undyne had done something important, and she just wanted to know what.

She wanted to know who she was reaching out for when the world went dark…

\---

...dark, darker, yet darker. The darkness kept growing.

He was trapped. He couldn’t move. The darkness had consumed him. He was suffocating. He was screaming. But no one could hear a sound.

The words were everywhere, echoing over and over again in his head. _‘...I would never suspect someone like you… to do something so… interesting… maybe I underestimated you…’_

He wailed louder, pleading for help. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to. He didn’t-

“papyrus?”

Sans opened the closet door. Papyrus blinked through his tears to see that light had flooded into the small room. He took a raspy breath. None of that was real. He had just been in his closet.

Even though it was over, Papyrus began to cry again.

Sans immediately kneeled down and pulled his sobbing brother into his arms. Papyrus hugged his big brother tightly, feeling a bit guilty for ruining his jacket with his several tears. 

“it’s ok,” Sans whispered softly while Papyrus cried into his chest. “i’m here. it’s ok.”

After a few minutes when his crying died down to some sniffling and hiccups, Sans asked, “did you have another nightmare?”

That was probably the best way to describe it. A nightmare. However, Papyrus’ normal nightmares had never felt that real. Everything about that experience was real. Papyrus was actually frozen. He was really suffocating. The voice was right there with him, and he could feel the presence of someone else in the closet. He had been wide awake.

“It-it was a l-livng nightmare,” Papyrus said with a shaking voice. “I-I went i-into my c-closet for some cl-clothes, and I was attacked b-by a living nightmare.” He knew that didn’t make sense, but he didn’t know how else to explain what happened.

“ok,” Sans’ voice was full of concern. “do you still want to go to school today?”

Papyrus nodded quickly. “I have to!” He sniffed. “I can’t m-miss anything important!”

“alright,” he sighed, clearly not liking that answer. “i’ll help you get ready then.”

Sans carried him all the way down the stairs and sat him in the kitchen chair. Papyrus did his best to wipe away the rest of his tears with the sleeves of his pajamas. Sans then sat down a warm bowl of oatmeal for Papyrus, which the little skeleton ate gladly.

Sans, who was eighteen, was both Papyrus’ brother and guardian. While he took care of Papyrus at home, he also made a living by being a sentry for the Royal Guard. Papyrus wished he could do more to help his brother, but he was only ten. He would just have to repay Sans in the future somehow. 

There were a lot of strange mysteries about the skeletons’ lives. Luckily, no one really asked them about it. Everyone in Snowdin just accepted that they showed one day and asserted themselves.

It bothered Papyrus though. It bothered him a lot.

For instance, even though he was ten, he knew almost nothing about his past. A couple months ago he had just woken up in his room one day after a long coma. Sans had said that the accident was extremely hazardous, so he would have a hard time trying to remember anything. He also said that it would be best for Papyrus’ mind if he didn’t try to remember the past, but focused on things since the coma instead.

Even if it did hurt his head, Papyrus wished Sans could describe just a few things from their history. Whenever Papyrus tired to ask him questions about their lives, his answers were short and basic.

“Did we have parents?”

“yes, but not anymore.”

“Why?”

“because they’re gone.”

“What were our parents like? When did they leave us? Why did they leave us?”

“it doesn’t matter.”

“Did we always live in this house?”

“no.”

“What happened to my head?”

“papyrus, go to bed.”

It really bothered him, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, Sans was giving up everything to raise him. So Papyrus did his brother a favor and tried to be as little of a nuisance as possible. He couldn’t do anything about the nightmares, though.

Sans was off from work today, so he decided to walk Papyrus to school. The younger skeleton skipped happily to the door with his backpack on, trying to forget what had happened just an hour ago. When they were ready Sans took his hand and together they walked out into the snow.

“What are you going to do today?” Papyrus asked his brother while they walked past Grillby’s.

“i’ll probably go to waterfall and buy a few things,” Sans replied.

He gasped. “Waterfall? Can I come?”

Sans chuckled. “you’re going to school.”

“I’ve still never been to Waterfall.”

“i know. we’ll go together soon.”

It wasn’t long before they both reached the Snowdin school. Papyrus gave his amazing brother a big hug before he ran for the school doors. 

Papyrus had a few possible friends. None of them were nice to him yet, but he was working hard to change that. There were four of them. Three rabbits and a snowdrake (snowdin had a vast rabbit population). Unlike the other monsters, these four actually went out of their way to talk to him. 

Usually they picked on him and said mean things. One time when Papyrus dropped his pencil, one of the kids kicked it away and laughed with the others. _‘They aren’t trying to be mean to me,’_ he thought to himself. _‘They are just challenging me to a game! Now retrieving my pencil will be an adventure!’_

Another time during lunch, one of the rabbits took the fruit cup from his desk and ate it greedily. “Why do you even need food?” he asked through a mouthful of peaches. “You’re just made of bones!” Papyrus understood his confusion so he decided to not make a scene out of it. 

One time they asked about his parents. Papyrus said he didn’t have any. “What happened to them?” the snowdrake asked curiously. When Papyrus told him that Sans wouldn’t say the snowdraked laughed. “Your brother is a freak! Just like you!”

When he had said that, Papyrus felt something odd from deep inside him. For a few seconds he didn’t want to be nice to the snowdrake. He wanted to do the opposite. He wanted to…

No, he couldn’t do that. He would have those feelings at rare points and he hated it. Sometimes Papyrus had to battle to remain kind and compassionate, but he would always win in the end. And it would be his kindness that would turn the fellow monsters to be kind too. 

They would be nice eventually. Papyrus was sure of it.

Today when he sat down at his desk, the four bigger kids turned to him eagerly. 

“Hey,” said the biggest rabbit. “We are going to do something after school today. You wanna come?”

Papyrus bounced in his seat. He knew his kindness and patience would pay off! Now he was being invited to things! He would have friends in no time. “Of course!” he said excitedly. “What are we doing?”

“It’s a surprise,” the rabbit replied with a grin. “But right when school ends, you leave with us.”

“Ok!” Papyrus nodded cheerfully. What a great day this was turning out to be!


	3. A Rescue Mission

“Come on, silly! This way!”

Papyrus perked up. Silly. That was the nicest name they had ever called him! He knew that he couldn’t trust them completely. Afterall, they were calling him a freak just the other day. But that didn’t mean that they all didn’t deserve another chance.

School had ended, and Papyrus was following his new friends into the forest. As they went deeper into the woods, the biggest rabbit grabbed his shoulders to guide Papyrus further along. Papyrus couldn’t help but flinch. They had hurt him before. But that was ok! They were good now!

The rabbit who was now holding onto him said, “We are going to make a human trap today! How does that sound?”

Papyrus squealed with excitement. He loved traps and puzzles! He was really good at them too! “That sounds fantastic!” 

He was too happy to notice that the imposing monsters around him were snickering.

When they stopped walking, Papyrus was so deep in the woods that he had no idea where he was. The trees were thick and massive, and the snow seemed like it had been undisturbed for years.

Now that they had stopped, one of the rabbits pulled out a bunch of ropes from his backpack. “Our trap is pretty simple,” he explained, “Just a rope trap that would tie up a human if they crossed through it.”

“That sounds fun!” Papyrus hopped eagerly in the rabbit’s grasp.

The rabbit with the ropes made a small rope circle and pointed to it. “You will stand here as the human, so we can know where to place everything else.” Papyrus nodded while the one who was holding him guided him to stand in the middle of the circle. While he stood there, the four monsters went to work. The snowdrake grabbed some ropes and flew high into the trees to tie them around the branches. The rabbits made some more circles around Papyrus, and worked on the placement of everything else. Papyrus watched with awe. This did not look like a simple trap.

When it seemed like they were almost done, Papyrus heard one of the rabbits call from behind. “Hey, little skeleton! Look this way!”

Papyrus turned around to see the rabbit jumping up and down. The next few seconds went by very quickly. 

There was a loud snap and suddenly the circled ropes leaped up and tied themselves around him. Papyrus shrieked as he was rapidly pulled into the air. Before he knew it, he was wrapped upside down, hanging from a thick tree branch like a piñata. He was hanging from about ten feet in the air. 

Papyrus could hear the kids howl with laughter from below him. “Nyeh heh heh,” he tried to join with them, but it came out very uncomfortably. “Could you guys please let me down now?”

“You actually thought that we would want to hang out with you?” one of the monsters called out from below. “You’re such an idiot! You just showed up randomly one day and annoyed the hell out of everyone! Why would anyone want to be friends with you? Maybe you should hang there longer to get that through your thick skull!” The monsters all laughed together. 

That nasty feeling was starting to attack Papyrus again. “No,” he whimpered. He shook around in the ropes, trying to get himself to stop. _But they deserved this_.

The monster who had just spoken suddenly screamed when he was carried into the air. Blue magic was blazing violently around him. 

“NO!” Papyrus wailed when he realized what he was doing. He released his magic and cried uncontrollably. He could hear the four monsters continue to scream as they ran away. Soon Papyrus was alone in the forest, and the only thing that could be heard was his sobbing.

Papyrus hated this. Instead of tears going down his cheeks, they were running up his forehead. Being upside down was starting to hurt his head, especially after the battle he had just fought with himself.

This time he had lost. He had let those feelings take over. He despised himself for it. He had almost hurt a monster. Maybe they were right. Maybe he was a freak.

\---

“Aren’t ya a little young to be a hero?” Gerson asked.

Undyne pouted and stomped her foot. “No!” she declared, “I’m not!”

Because she lived with Gerson, which made him her guardian, she needed his permission every time she wanted to go out on an adventure. It had now been around an hour since school ended, and she was going to watch a movie with him. But that was before she felt something within her soul.

She remembered. It was the exact same feeling she got on the day when the world went dark. When she had reached out to help someone. Now she had this feeling that she needed to follow whatever was calling to her. That was why she asked to be excused for heroic reasons.

Gerson shrugged. “Alright, you can go. But if ya get into any trouble, yer not gonna be pleased with what happens next.”

Undyne saluted. “Yes, Gerson!” she shouted. She had a feeling that she would need her coat, so she grabbed it. A few seconds later, she was running out of the house.

She followed her soul right where it wanted her to go. It was rare for her to have a feeling this strong. Undyne was beaming. After all this time, she may finally get answers! She was following her soul right to her destiny!

She was a little surprised when she was suddenly running through Snowdin. The cold air nipped at her skin, and her one eye teared from the frozen wind. But thanks to her green coat, she could handle it.

Undyne ran straight through the small town and into the forest. Even though she didn’t pause, she hoped that her soul was being honest with her. She didn’t ever want to get lost in this cold wasteland. 

Though she was a fantastic runner, she eventually had to start walking. She huffed out frozen air as she trekked deeper into the woods. The trees seemed to grow bigger as they loomed over her, and the world turned darker when a few snowflakes began to fall. Undyne wondered if it was going to storm soon. 

The further she went, the stronger that feeling grasped her soul. Everything within her told her to keep going, to find the soul that she had been reaching out to, and she obeyed. 

Finally, she saw it. Undyne couldn’t help but laugh.

A small skeleton was tied up all the way from his ankles to his shoulders, and he was hanging upside down from a single rope connected to a tree branch. He was dressed in a yellow coat and some red snow boots. When Undyne got closer, she realized that he was pretty high up in the air. The skeleton was whimpering and struggling, but when he noticed that she was there he immediately went still and silent except for a few hiccups here and there.

“Who a-are you?” the skeleton asked in a voice that was weak from crying.

“The name’s Undyne!” she said boldly. She put her hand on her chest to strike a pose. “I’m a hero!”

“Wh-what are you - _hic_ \- doing here?”

Undyne laughed again. “I’m rescuing you, of course!”

Instead of relieved, the skeleton’s face looked upset. “I-I don’t need to be r-rescued!” he cried. “I can d-do this on my own!”

Undyne put her hands on her hips while she watched the skeleton swing back and forth in the ropes as he struggled to free himself. He was getting nowhere. “Are you sure?”

“Well…” the skeleton hesitated and he once again went still. The rope eventually stopped swinging and now he was just rotating in the air ever so slowly. “...It does hurt b-being upside down like this. Maybe I could use some assistance.”

Undyne knew what he was talking about. Whenever she was upside down for too long, she felt sick. Wait, did skeletons even get sick like that? She gasped when she realized that she had never met a skeleton before. They were so rare! This adventure was such a win!

“Assistance, huh?” Undyne looked around at the ropes in the trees, wondering how she was going to get up there. 

“Y-yes! Assistance! It’s not a rescue mission! Someone bold like me does not need to be rescued!”

“Of course,” Undyne giggled a bit. Were all skeletons this little and cute?

After a minute of thinking, Undyne had it. “I’m going to cut that rope with my spear!” she declared. “And then I’ll catch you!”

The skeleton looked a bit hesitant. “Are you good at catching?”

“I’m the best at everything!”

He gasped. “Really? W-Wowie!”

Undyne nodded while she summoned a blue spear into her hand. “Just hold still, and don’t worry about a thing! Assistance is on the way!”

The skeleton squeezed his eye sockets shut, and Undyne threw her spear high enough to slice right through the rope. He let out a fearful shriek as he began to fall, and Undyne ran forward to catch him right in her arms. Now that she held him he was a bit bigger than she had expected, but also way lighter than she expected too. She guessed that made sense. 

Once Undyne had him, he dared to open his eyes. “Wowie!” his smile was huge. “You did it!”

“Told you so,” she said as she set him on the ground. She then easily undid all the ropes so that he could stand freely of any restraints. Standing side by side, the skeleton was about a foot shorter than her and looked incredibly young. Undyne narrowed her eyes, observing the skeleton, “How old are you, anyway?”

“I’m ten and a half!” He then huffed and crossed his arms. “But it’s very rude to ask questions like that before you even ask for my name!”

Undyne smiled at the pouting skeleton. “Sorry. I honestly forgot to ask for your name. It just feels like I…” she paused when she realized how dumb it would sound, but she continued anyway. “...Like I’ve known you already.”

His tiny frustration immediately disappeared when she said that. He looked at her for a moment, concentrating hard on something, before he said, “Maybe we have. I kind of forgot my entire past.”

Undyne laughed until she realized that he wasn’t joking. “What?”

“I had an accident that put me in a long coma a few months ago. Now I can’t remember much from my past, and they say it’s best for my health if I don’t try to remember.”

Undyne wasn’t sure what to say. That sounded awful. She couldn’t even imagine how that must feel. Maybe she could a little bit with how she couldn’t remember everything from the day the world went-

Undyne jerked at the realization. This was the soul, this skeleton was the soul she reached out to. Her soul led her to _him_. 

The little monster now looked a little uncomfortable, and Undyne realized she had been thinking for too long. “Sorry, what’s your name?”

The skeleton proudly put his hand on his chest the way Undyne had. Was he learning from her already? “I’m Papyrus! It is so nice to meet you!”

Undyne smiled again, this time showing her teeth. “The pleasure is mine.” She looked up and realized that it was now darker. The snowflakes were falling more rapidly. “We better get going. The last thing I want is to be caught in a storm.”

Papyrus nodded with agreement. Before he could take a step, however, Undyne walked forward and scooped up the skeleton to hold him in her arms again. She cradled him with his back rested on one arm and his legs hanging over the other. “Why do you need to carry me?” Undyne was concerned by the hint of fear in his voice. Had someone hurt him by holding him before? She forgot to ask why he was tied upside down in the first place.

“Well, you are clearly drained from hanging there for who knows how long, so I must further assist you by taking you back to your home. Besides, you’re really light.”

“Oh,” Papyrus seemed happy and relaxed again. “Ok!”

With that, Undyne briskly walked back by following her footsteps in the snow. Even with the snowfall picking up, she hadn’t been running through here too long ago so it was easy to spot them.

As Undyne walked along, Papyrus’ eye sockets began to droop. He yawned, then said, “Thanks for rescuing me.”

“Assisting you,” Undyne corrected.

His eyes shot open as he realized his mistake. “Yes!” he said more loudly and awake, “That’s what I meant.”

Undyne chuckled before daring to ask, “So what happened to you, anyway?”

“Uh...” he pondered a bit, “I was helping some other kids make a human trap, and they caught me in it. Then they ran away.”

Undyne snarled. “They just left you like that?”

“Well… I kind of scared them away… with my magic.”

“I see,” Undyne said bitterly. She didn’t understand how anyone could do that to a nice little fellow.

After that, Papyrus began to drift off again to a half asleep kind of state before they got to Snowdin. “We’re here,” she told him, which caused him to wake again.

“Oh my god!” he squealed with renewed energy. Papyrus squirmed out of Undyne’s arms and ran through the falling snow to a house near the edge of town. She followed him excitedly.

Papyrus opened the front door before taking Undyne’s hand to pull them both inside. Undyne let out a long breath of relief when they entered the warm home. She had forgotten how cold she was.

“Sans!” he called out into the quiet house. “Sans! I’m-”

Papyrus was basically attacked by a bigger skeleton who shot out of the kitchen. “papyrus!” he cried as he held Papyrus tightly in his arms. “i was so worried! i called everyone i knew, even the royal guard! i guess i’ll have to call them all back, heh.” Undyne watched him go through the process of tearing up before pulling himself together. While he continued to hug Papyrus, he looked over at Undyne. “who are you?”

Papyrus pushed himself away from the bigger skeleton so that he could stand between them. “Sans, this is Undyne. Undyne, this is my brother, Sans!”

“Hey,” Undyne greeted Sans with a smile. Even though he was bigger than Papyrus, he was only an inch taller than Undyne. He also looked much older than her.

Sans smiled too, but it seemed like he was always smiling. “um, pap, what happened?”

“Well, uh, these mean kids at school trapped me in the woods, but Undyne here came along and assisted me! She’s from… where are you from?”

“Waterfall,” Undyne replied.

Papyrus gasped. “Waterfall! That’s so cool!”

“Not as cool as Snowdin,” she joked. When Sans laughed at that, she jerked a bit. She didn’t expect anyone to find that funny. She then straightened her posture and continued with a bold voice, “Anyway, because I so kindly assisted your brother, I think a reward is in order.”

Sans looked surprised. “what? you want gold or something?”

“Just something fit enough for a warrior like me!”

He thought for a moment, then said, “well, since you liked papyrus enough to help him out, why don’t you come over tomorrow? pap has a lot of toys and puzzles, not to mention that he’s a very cool dude.” Papyrus blushed at that and looked down at his boots. 

Undyne nodded vigorously. “That seems like an excellent reward!” 

Papyrus jumped with both shock and excitement. “It does!?”

“Of course! We’re friends now, after all!”

The little skeleton gasped. “We are?”

“Yep!” Undyne then stomped her foot and waved to the two skeletons respectfully. “I will see you tomorrow!” she announced. She then walked out the door and headed home while the brothers said their goodbyes. 

Undyne marched home triumphantly. “Too young to be a hero?” she snorted to herself. “I’m the best hero yet!”


	4. Are You a Star?

It was a Friday night. Papyrus was at least thankful for that. Tomorrow his new friend would be coming over, and they would probably get to spend the whole day together. On Monday, Sans said that Papyrus would have to talk to the principal about what the bullies had done to him. He was not looking forward to that. As much as he didn’t appreciate them, he still didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. Or like him less. 

But for now, it was a Friday night. On those nights, Papyrus got to lay on the couch and watch TV with Sans. There usually wasn’t much on the normal television, but Sans had a ton of movies saved from the surface that he found at the dump in Waterfall. They had just watched a cartoon movie that Sans fell asleep halfway through, and now Papyrus was laying ontop of his sleeping brother while listening to the ending music and watching the credits roll. The little skeleton drowsily watched as more and more human names appeared on the screen. He wished he could meet just one human in his lifetime.

Other than the TV softly playing music, the house was mostly silent. Papyrus yawned and listened to Sans’ slow breaths. His body rose and fell slightly as his brother’s chest did. But the peacefulness didn’t last for long.

In the corner of the living room there was an unnatural shadow. His whole body shivered when he saw it. The shadow was tall, thin, and shapeless. Papyrus could then start hearing an eerie ambience. Somewhere in the distance, a giant machine was rumbling. A ventilation system was quivering loudly. His own soul was pounding. Papyrus’ body grew colder. 

His location transformed. He was now standing in a dark cold hallway, the location of most of his nightmares. Papyrus trembled as he walked forward. Behind him, he could hear the footsteps of someone else. 

When Papyrus ran, it was painfully slow. The footsteps from behind were only picking up speed. 

“No!” he wailed. “Stay away from me!” After Papyrus took another step, his body suddenly floated into the air. His soul had turned blue and he was stuck there several inches above the floor. He tried to struggle, but it was no use. His body was frozen still.

They were coming closer.

“Somebody help me!” he screamed into the darkness. Choking on his cries, he yelled, “I need you!”

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

“AHHH!” he wailed in terror and wrestled to escape. 

“shh, shh, it’s ok. just a nightmare. you’re home. you’re with sans. i’m here. i’m here…”

The darkness leaked out of his vision. Sans was sitting up now, holding Papyrus tightly in his arms. His head was rested on top of Papyrus’. When he slowly turned his position, he could see that the shadow was gone. He would have sighed with relief, but he was too busy whimpering.

“you’re okay,” Sans continued as his crying died down. Once the noises he made were mostly hiccups, Sans sat him back on his lap so that he could look into Papyrus’ eye sockets. “i know you never want to talk about it,” he acknowledged, “but i think you need to. you don’t need to hide anything from me, bro. i can help you through anything.”

“It’s- _hic_ -it’s just nightmares,” Papyrus croaked, “My s-sick head is playing tricks on me.”

Sans hugged Papyrus closely again to where he couldn’t see his face anymore. “your mind may be recovering from an injury, yes. but you are not sick headed. i think it would help your recovery if you told me what was going on.”

“I don’t e-even understand my nightmares. - _hic_ \- It’s mostly just running through darkness, th-that’s all. - _hic_ -”

Sans sighed. “are you sure that’s it? is there anything else you could tell me?”

Papyrus shook his head against Sans’ shoulder. He hoped that Sans would just take his word for it. Sure, there was a lot more to Papyrus’ nightmares. The giant cold building, the shadows on the walls, the presence of someone standing right behind him…

But there was no need to tell Sans that. Sans had said that they had a normal past, so those nightmares couldn’t be memories, no matter how real they felt. Sick headed, injured headed, it didn’t matter. Papyrus’ mind was messed up. It started with simple shadows, but then accelerated to mysterious figures trying to get him. And then that all would accelerate to Papyrus having dark thoughts about what he could do to other monsters. If he told Sans half the stuff he went through, his brother would think that he was crazy. Papyrus didn’t want that. He could handle pushing away the darkness on his own. Sans didn’t need to be tied up in the insaneness. He already had so much on his plate, and Papyrus’ incomprehensible problems were the last thing he needed. Papyrus had to get better eventually.

“alright,” Sans said with a long breath, “let’s get you to bed then.” He carried his little brother up the stairs and placed him into the racecar bed. He then carefully tucked Papyrus in and lovingly pressed his forehead against his brother’s tiny skull. After that, Sans picked up one of the books before he sat in the chair next to his bed and began reading.

Papyrus closed his eye sockets and listened to his brother’s comforting voice. Sometimes he wished that he could tell him all of his problems, but that would just be selfish of him. Sans had made the decision to have Papyrus be his whole world, and the last thing Papyrus needed to do was destroy that world for him. There was no way Sans could fix his own dark thoughts. Papyrus was just going to have to battle that out on his own.

Papyrus raced down the stairs when he heard a knock at the door. “She’s here!” he cheered. “She’s-”

Right when he was about to open the door, it flew open and Undyne barged inside. She then threw herself on top of Papyrus, and pinned him to the floor. Papyrus laid on his back with both of his wrists held down by Undyne’s hands. She loomed over him with a serious face. 

“You’re being drafted into the Royal Guard!” she yelled quite loudly for being right over Papyrus’ face. “Say ‘sir, yes sir’!”

He flinched with confusion. “Say what?”

Undyne groaned impatiently. “Say ‘sir, yes sir’!”

When Papyrus paused again, she sighed and shook her head. “Nevermind. New game! You are…” Undyne looked up in concentration, trying to think of a different game. Papyrus wiggled a bit in Undyne’s grasp, but she didn’t move an inch. He trusted Undyne more than any monster that wasn’t Sans, but he still felt a bit uncomfortable like this.

Undyne looked back down at him when she had it. “You are being abducted!” she said excitedly. “By… by humans!”

“Are they nice humans?”

Undyne now looked confused, but she quickly shook her head again. “I don’t want to play that either,” she huffed, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder. “What do you wanna play?”

“how about you play something that doesn’t have to do with pinning down my bro?” Sans asked from the kitchen. There was a hint of anger in his voice, as if he was already regretting having Undyne over.

Papyrus decided to quickly call out a game. “Let’s play house!”

Undyne gasped with delight. She jumped to her feet, then grabbed Papyrus by the shoulders to have him stand in front of her. “That’s a great idea!” she acclaimed. She took Papyrus’ hand and dragged him up the stairs. Once they were at the top of the stairs Undyne paused for only a moment before she dragged the skeleton into his room and shut the door noisily.

“How did you know this was my room?” Papyrus asked in wonder.

She snorted. “It says your name on the door!”

“Oh.”

Undyne looked around the room with some interest before she looked back at Papyrus. “Anyway, who do you wanna be?”

Papyrus didn’t have to think twice. “Can I be the mom?”

She looked a bit hesitant. “Did you ever have a mom?” her voice was suddenly much softer.

“Well, I did have parents at one point, but not anymore.”

Undyne nodded. Her eye looked a bit clouded with grief. “I don’t have parents anymore either.” After a somber moment, she straightened up again and stood boldly in front of Papyrus. “I’ll be the teenage daughter! Because I’m a teenager now!”

“Ok!” Papyrus then opened up his arms to hug Undyne. “Hey sweetie, how was school?”

Undyne turned away from the hug snobbishly. “I’m too cool for you now, mother,” she said defiantly.

Before Papyrus could know what to do, Undyne ran into his closet and slammed the door shut. Papyrus carefully walked over and knocked on the door. “Um, honey?”

“This isn’t a phase, mom!” Undyne shouted from inside. “I need to go makeout with my boyfriend!”

Papyrus put his hands on his hips. “You didn’t tell me that you had a boyfriend!”

“Well, you didn’t tell me that you were cheating on your husband!”

He gasped. “How did you find out?”

“Oh, it was obvious! I saw you cheating on him with that sexy skeleton. What’s his name again? Wait! That’s right! Sans!”

“Sans!?” Papyrus shook with laughter and fell to the floor. “Nyeh heh heh heh! Saahaans! Heeeh!”

Undyne was giggling too when she opened the closet door. Her smile grew when she kneeled down and started attacking Papyrus with tickles. 

“Nooooo!” Papyrus squealed. He tried to roll away, but Undyne only grew more determined. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. “Stooop! Nyhoooo!”

“Say stone stars!” Undyne shouted over Papyrus’ laughter. 

“Sto-stone- heheheheh!”

“Say it!”

“Stone st-stars!”

Undyne finally let go of the poor skeleton. Papyrus smiled and panted heavily from the floor. “You- you are very good at that.”

“Well, only the best warriors are great at all types of fighting!” Undyne exclaimed while striking another pose. “Even tickling battles!”

Once Papyrus caught his breath, he asked, “What are stone stars?”

Undyne looked shocked. “Have you ever been to Waterfall?”

He shook his head.

“What!?” She looked outraged. “We must go to Waterfall at once!”

Papyrus sprung to his feet. “Really?”

“Yes! There are so many things I need to show you!” Without hesitation, she threw open the door and ran down the stairs. Papyrus did his best to keep up. 

“are you going somewhere?” Sans asked from the couch when the two were by the front door.

“Undyne wants to take me to Waterfall!” Papyrus jumped up and down. 

Sans narrowed his eyes. “i don’t think you two going around waterfall is very safe.”

“Oh, please!” Undyne said confidently, “I have been everywhere in Waterfall by myself, with my eye shut! As long as Papyrus is with me, he’ll be safe and sound!” She then interlocked Papyrus’ arm with hers.

Sans studied the two for a moment, and then sighed as he leaned back into the couch. “is that a watch on your wrist?”

Undyne nodded eagerly and put her fist into the air. A tiny watch was strapped around it.

“be back in two hours,” Sans said grievously. “if you’re back a second after, i will come find both of you. and trust me, you don’t want that.”

“Don’t worry, Sans! We’ll be good!” Papyrus uttered. Arms still interlocked, he opened the door and walked himself and Undyne out of the house. 

“Your brother is kinda creepy,” Undyne muttered once they were outside.

“You should see him when I actually get in trouble!” he shouted as they trekked through the snow towards Waterfall. 

“Do you get in trouble often?”

Papyrus stomped his foot. “Of course not!” He paused then said more quietly, “But one time I accidently broke the window, and when Sans saw what happened his eye started glowing.”

Turns out Papyrus lived much closer to Waterfall than he thought. Unlike Snowdin, Waterfall’s ceiling was much closer to the ground. The ceiling also circled around them and formed walls. Instead of being a vast open space, it was more like a system of several narrow caves. Different colored specks of stone shone from the ceiling and walls. Other than that, Waterfall was mostly blue. There were blue glowing mushrooms, plants, and of course the water was crystal blue as well. 

A few seconds after entering the caves, Papyrus let go of Undyne and ran up to a blue mushroom curiously. When he poked it with his finger, it bounced amusingly and shook off specks of light, causing them to float in the air. Papyrus giggled in surprise.

“It’s so magical!” Papyrus exclaimed when Undyne ran up to his side.

Undyne smiled. “That’s nothing. Come check this out!” She took his hand and led him to some of the flowers. 

The blue flowers were beautiful. They were tall, elegant, and seemed to glow slightly on their own. Undyne leaned over and spoke to one of the flowers, “Hey, Papyrus!” 

Papyrus tilted his head with confusion before he jumped back with shock. Soon after Undyne spoke, the flower repeated her words in an echoing voice. “Wowie!” Papyrus gasped. A couple flowers then whispered in his voice. _“Wowie! Wowie! Wowie!”_ They both laughed, and soon the flowers were giggling as well.

Undyne skipped as she took him further into the caves. They were soon pretty soaked from jumping through creeks and running through falling water that leaked from the ceiling. 

“Usually it’s raining,” Undyne said while they watched a bigger waterfall pour into a stream. Little lily pads and flowers in the water drifted past them. “But I guess we’re lucky today.”

After quite some time of exploring, Undyne took Papyrus to see the stone stars. It was a bigger part of the caves, and Papyrus took in a big gasp when he saw what was before him. There were smaller stones shining everywhere in the caves, but in this room there must have been a million bright stones in the ceiling. They were in all different shapes and sizes, and while most of them glowed yellow, blue, and white, there were a few other colors as well. Undyne took his hand and led him to a small patch of blue grass. They laid on their backs and watched the glistening stones in awe.

“This is so pretty,” Papyrus whispered.

“They say on the surface, the sky can sometimes look like this. And apparently up there it looks even better.”

“How could this get any better?” he raised his hands to the stone stars.

“I don’t know, but I have to see it in my life.”

After a few moments of just watching the twinkling lights, Undyne spoke in a soft voice. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure!”

“Ok, um… do you remember what happened when the world went dark?”

Papyrus lifted himself to his elbows so that he could look at Undyne. She was still staring at the ceiling. “What do you mean?”

Undyne tilted her head to look into his eye sockets. “A few months ago, the entire Underground went dark. Monsters lost memories that day, but not a lot. Everyone’s over it now, but at the time it was scary.”

“I must have been in the coma then,” Papyrus looked back up. “I wonder why Sans hasn’t told me about that.”

“Yeah…” Undyne seemed lost in thought.

They were silent for a few more minutes before Undyne jumped to her feet with a new burst of energy. “Let’s play hide and seek!”

Papyrus hesitated. “I don’t think we should separate.”

“We still have some time before we have to go back!” Undyne protested, “How about you hide somewhere nearby, and I’ll come find you. I know every speck of this place on the back of my hand, so finding you will be easy.”

Papyrus stood to face her boldly. “It won’t be easy to find an expert hider like me!”

“Oh, really?” Undyne sneered. “I’ll count to fifty, which is a generous amount of time. Feel free to give me a challenge!” She then covered her eye and began counting. 

Papyrus ran off into the more narrow parts of the caves. Puddles of water splashed around him noisily. Not wanting to get too far away, Papyrus decided to crouch in a section of tall grass. He huffed to himself as he sat on the damp floor. He knew this wasn’t a good hiding spot, but to be honest, he didn’t want to be alone for long.

A few echo flowers stood behind him, so he remained silent so that they wouldn’t give him away. It wasn’t long though before they started making noises of their own.

The noise was very faint, but there. Papyrus scooted closer to hear them better. They were giving off the sound of rain. He didn’t know that they gave off sounds that weren’t words! They must have picked up the noise of rain from sometime earlier. _Pitter patter, pitter patter._ The noises were echoing inside his head, growing louder and louder. It was the strangest feeling to hear the rain fall around him without it actually happening. 

As the sound of rain continued in his head, the flowers were suddenly giving off a different noise. Papyrus trembled. They were giving off a low hiss. 

They were coming closer.

And closer.

Papyrus jerked back when he looked at the nearest wall. The shadow of a strange creature was approaching. It almost looked like a dog. It walked on all fours, and was extremely skinny. He could now make out ribs in the shadow, which meant that it must have also been made out of bones. The shadow of its skull looked like the head of a dangerous best, with a long snout and sharp horns. Papyrus shivered. The rain inside of his head grew louder. It was storming.

When the shadow got too close, Papyrus couldn’t help but stand and run away. He panted desperately as he sprinted along. Tiny puddles splashed under his running steps. The storm was furiously loud inside of him, but he could still make out the dangerous hiss from the shadow creature behind. The cave grew more and more narrow, making it easier for the beast on the wall to run closer. Papyrus shrieked and tried to move faster, but the creature was now right at his side, waiting for him to touch the wall.

As Papyrus ran by the glowing mushrooms and plants, he realized that they were blinking. The lights flickered on and off, causing the caves to grow lighter and then darker. The cave was only getting smaller, and the creature was only getting bigger. Its shadow loomed over him. The hissing was now as loud as the rain.

When Papyrus looked next to him, the shadow had opened its mouth, and sharp fangs were bared. A blue light was beginning to glow from the creature. He shrieked and closed his eye sockets, not wanting to see what happened next. 

He guessed that he forgot that he was running when he cut out his vision, and soon the skeleton ran right into something hard. He yelped and opened his eye sockets to find that he was laying in front of a pink house. Right next to it was a blue house. 

“Hello?” a voice asked from inside the pink house. “Is somebody there?”

Papyrus sat up, pretty dazed from what just happened. The cave he was now in looked completely normal. There were no blinking lights, no sounds of rain, and most importantly, no shadows. He sighed in relief. “Sorry,” he said to the door that he sat in front of. “I accidentally ran into your door.”

“Oh dear,” the voice said. It sounded like it belonged to a young girl. “Are you alright, darling?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Papyrus’ head was still spinning a bit. “How are you?”

The voice giggled. “That’s so kind of you to ask! I’m afraid though that I haven’t felt happy in a long time. You see gorgeous, I’m just a nobody.”

Papyrus scooted closer to the door. “Nobody’s a nobody.”

“Exactly! I am that nobody.”

His head was already hurting, but now the voice’s logic was making it all worse. “Well, you’re somebody to me.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.”

Papyrus tried to think of something before saying, “Is there somebody you want to be?”

She gasped with excitement. “Oh, yes! I would love to be a star!”

Papyrus chuckled. “You want to be a twinkling light?”

“No! Not that kind of star! I want to be an entertainer! Someone that monsters watch and adore! I want to be popular and talented! I want the whole world to love me!”

“Wowie,” Papyrus breathed. “That’s a big wish.”

“I know it is, darling. But when you’re a nobody, there’s nothing else to do than wish big.”

“Hmmmm…” Papyrus looked down at his red boots. “Maybe I should wish big. I’ll try to come up with something.”

“Oh, please let me know when you do!”

“PAPYRUS!”

He turned around to find Undyne storming over to him. “This is way out of bounds!” she bellowed. “Did you forget our game or something?”

Papyrus stood up and fidgeted with his yellow coat guiltily. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Undyne narrowed her eye. “Who were you talking to?”

“Nobody.”

She looked taken aback, but then looked back at her watch and groaned. “Come on.” She grabbed his hand and walked briskly away. “We gotta get back to your house before Sans kills us.”

While they marched quickly through the grass and creeks, Papyrus could hear the faint echo of rain in the back of his mind.

Shadow on the floor. 

Following my every move.

When it’s dark, I can’t see it. 

But it’s there. 

Shadow on the wall.

Following the movements of an absent figure.

When it’s dark, I see it.

But I don’t know if it’s there.

Shadow on the ceiling.

Following nothing, moving on its own accord. 

It’s dark. I can’t see anything.


	5. The Fog

The talk with the principal on Monday was painful. Papyrus hated recalling what had happened with the bullies, but he recited the whole story anyway. He just hoped that things would work out from all of this.

When Papyrus was done, Sans and the principal talked for a long time. He waited out in the lobby with nothing to do but swing his legs from the chair. Finally, Sans returned from their office and took his younger brother’s hand to leave. On the walk home, he told Papyrus that he would never have to talk to those horrible children again. He was even going to be assigned a buddy that he could hang out with instead.

Papyrus lowered his head in shame. After all this time trying to make friends on his own, he was just going to be assigned one. Why couldn’t making new friends be as easy as it was with Undyne?

He got to return to class the next day. The desk seats were rearranged so that the bullies would sit at the other side of the classroom when they eventually returned. For now however, those four kids weren’t allowed to come back to school until next week. Papyrus now sat in the back corner, right next to the desk of his new buddy. 

Doggo was big for a puppy. He wore a pink and black striped t-shirt and some black shorts. His muscles were impressive and his fur was slightly rugged. When Papyrus sat next to him, his ears were pointed back and his eyes were narrowed. Papyrus gulped. He hadn’t expected to get the scary buddy. He was pretty sure that Doggo never talked to anyone in class. 

After a few seconds of sitting awkwardly next to Doggo, Papyrus spoke up. “Hello! My name’s Papyrus!”

“I know,” Doggo growled.

“Oh. Do you want to be my friend?”

Doggo flinched. “Well, to be honest, I don’t like your brother.”

“Why not?”

“He’s pranked me a couple of times at Grillby’s.” He looked coldly into the distance.

Papyrus shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I apologize for my big brother. I promise he means well.”

Doggo snorted. After some more silence he murmured, “I don’t belong in this class.”

“Why?”

He rolled his eyes. “Dog monsters age fast compared to normal ones. I’m actually eight years old, but I’m stronger and smarter than anyone here. But they are afraid of letting me move up anymore because of my disability.”

“You have a disability?”

“I’m basically blind. Most of the time, I can only see moving things. It fucking sucks.”

Papyrus gasped at the word. “Sorry,” Doggo sighed.

After some more awkward silence, Doggo spoke first this time. “I accept your appolgy for your stupid brother.”

“I’ll let him know to never prank you again!”

“Thanks.”

Luckily, the teacher began their lesson soon after that, so the awkward silence was over. While Papyrus did the activities and took notes, Doggo spent the whole time gnawing on his pencil. When class was over, Doggo rushed out before Papyrus could do anything. The skeleton sighed before he packed his things and left with the small crowd. At least Doggo didn’t pick on him.

Papyrus stared into the snow as he slowly walked home. He looked up and stopped in place when he saw that the few kids around the area started screaming and running away. There were several rocks being thrown at them. 

He looked to where the rocks were coming from, then shuddered. Those three rabbits that had hurt him too many times were laughing as they chased the rest of the kids away. While that was happening the snowdrake swooped from the forest towards him with outstretched talons. Papyrus shrieked and dropped his backpack and coat so he could run away as fast as he could. He ran straight into the part of the woods that was furthest away from the snowdrake.

As he ran past the trees, his soul was pounding just as loud as his boots were on the snow. He was panicking so hard that it didn’t take long before he clumsily tripped over a root. Right when he splattered to the ground, the back of his striped shirt was grabbed by the talons and Papyrus was lifted out of the snow. He squirmed in air helplessly while the snowdrake flew back the way they came. His soul was burning, begging him to drown the snowdrake in gravity so that he could be crushed into nothingness. Papyrus suddenly had to change tactics as he focused from wiggling free to keeping his own soul in control.

By the time he was dropped back into the snow, his vision was flickering on and off. The darkness inside him was only getting stronger. He could hear the rabbits and the snowdrake over him as he struggled to keep himself together.

One of the rabbits grabbed his face so that they could look right into his tearing eye sockets. “There you are, you little _freak_!” He then smacked Papyrus across the face.

He rolled over on his side and covered his burning face with his hands. He was trembling so hard he could hear himself rattle. Every second was a fight for his life as he tried harder and harder to keep the darkness away. Magic coursed through his body, wanting to be used. The only thing he could do was focus on Sans’ soothing words. _‘i’m here. i’m here. i’m here…’_

“S-Sans…” he sobbed into his hands.

The monsters started to shout more things, but Papyrus couldn’t hear most of it. He couldn’t hear a lot over the pounding of his soul.

Then they started kicking him. Papyrus whimpered again and again every time his bones burned with agony. He peaked through his fingers to see that a giant rabbit foot was aiming for his head. He squeaked in terror and blocked his vision to be ready for…

“What the-!”

He had felt the rabbit’s foot for a single moment before it passed through his head like it was just air. He opened his eye sockets and flinched when the rabbit tried to kick his head again, but the foot phased right through it. Papyrus gasped. Was he dead? Was he a ghost now?

The rabbit tried a third time, and this time it made an impact. Papyrus could only react with a single gasp before he tried to cover his beaten face. He cried brokenly while someone grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted his body to smash him back into the snow. The snow was so frigid that it was adding to the burning torture as well. A few seconds later, the kids finally stopped.

Papyrus laid there, shivering on the ground and waiting for more. He was still battling the darkness, so it was almost impossible to tell what was going on around him. However, the fight against himself was becoming easier. The darkness must have given up because it was leaking away quickly. His vision got clearer and his hearing returned as he felt the horribleness drift away from his soul. He let out the raspiest sigh of relief.

“...We don’t want any trouble. We are just getting revenge on this skeleton, who almost killed us a few days ago.” Whoever spoke dryly laughed and said, “If you want, we could probably get one of his bones for you.”

Papyrus heard a familiar growl. “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline the offer. You see, that little one is my friend. And if you don’t get the hell out of here, you’re going to get stabbed.”

He looked past the rabbit’s legs that were slightly in his way to see Doggo standing before them. The skeleton smiled weakly through the aching pain that was surging through him. Doggo had just called him his friend.

The rabbit closest to Doggo snorted. “We aren’t scared of you, you stupid-”

Doggo walked up to the talking rabbit and punched him right in the face. The rabbit screamed in agony while he tried to cover his nose, which was leaking blood that splattered onto the pure white snow. 

Doggo then bared his teeth while he summoned blue daggers into his paws, and slashed at the bullies skillfully. His dagger cut across the snowdrake’s cheek, leaving a dripping dark red line behind. While the pup watched the snowflake retreat, the biggest rabbit grabbed both of Doggo’s hands and another rabbit punched the dog several times. Doggo recoiled from the punches until he leaped from the ground and kicked the rabbit holding him with both of his legs. The rabbit gasped and clenched his gut while Doggo took the advantage to stab at anyone who still wanted to fight. It was only a few more seconds before the children all ran away in terror. 

Tired and in pain from the couple of times the other monsters landed punches on him, Doggo trudged to the shivering skeleton. As tears continued to leak from his eye sockets, Papyrus sat up in the snow and gently hugged Doggo’s legs. He flinched and immediately jumped back and away from Papyrus.

“Listen,” Doggo spoke in a voice that was serious and far from comforting, “I’m gonna be honest with you. I know that I was assigned to be your buddy because those sickos wouldn’t leave you alone. And I don’t mind being your friend. I actually like you a lot more than most monsters. But that doesn’t mean that we’re close or anything, ok? I enjoy protecting monsters that need me, but I don’t enjoy any sort of ‘hugging’ or ‘bonding’. The most I’ll do with you is go on walks, but that’s it. Understand, buddy?”

Papyrus nodded and wiped his tears. “Thank you,” he croaked.

Doggo sighed. “You don’t need to thank me. I should have stopped those kids much earlier.” He paused then added, “If you want, I can walk you home after school. That way you’re safe, and I get in a walk.”

He nodded eagerly. “I-I don’t live far at all! So it won’t be any inconvenience for you. And I’d be happy to go on a walk with you anytime! Just let me know!”

“Alright,” Doggo smiled slightly, “I will.”

Right before Doggo was going to help Papyrus get up, a battle cry was heard and Undyne barged into the scene. “NGAAH!” She ran towards Doggo with a spear in her hand. 

“No!” Papyrus cried. “Undyne, wait!”

Undyne slid to a stop before the two monsters. She was seething with rage. “Did you do this to him?” she snarled to Doggo. 

While Doggo looked shocked by Undyne’s sudden entrance, Papyrus spoke up again. “He saved me! I was getting hurt by those bullies, and Doggo here scared them away!”

When Undyne looked at Papyrus, her spear vanished. She grabbed his arms and lifted him before her, inspecting his beaten frozen body. “Those jerks could have killed you!”

Doggo snorted. “Those kids don’t have the guts to kill.” When Undyne glared at him, he quickly added, “But yeah, he looks awful.”

When Undyne set him to stand on the ground, Papyrus asked, “What are you doing here, Undyne?”

“Um…” Undyne looked down, clearly trying to come up with something. “I just felt like you needed me.” She then threw up her hands and said more boldly, “And I was right! Just look at you!”

Before Papyrus could say anything else, he felt something creep up his spine. It wasn’t a shiver of coldness, but more like dread. He trembled slightly when his eye sockets quickly flashed to darkness again. He had just won the battle! That darkness couldn’t be coming back already!

“What the hell is that?” Doggo gasped. 

Papyrus turned his head, but it was pointless. He couldn’t see at all. His trembling became more severe. This was the longest time he had gone without seeing a thing.

“U-Undyne,” Papyrus shivered. “I-I can’t s-see!” He yelped when he felt something grab his arm. 

“That’s just me,” Undyne said both reassuringly and worriedly. “We need to get out of here.”

Papyrus stumbled forward when Undyne tried to guide him along. How was he supposed to move when he couldn’t see? He felt a sudden wave of sympathy for Doggo.

“Just trust your instincts, ok?” Doggo said beside him. “Focus on your body and not your eyes. That’s it. Just keep those legs goin. You’re doing great.”

Papyrus continued to stumble while his friends dragged him along as quickly as they could. “You know what? I’m just gonna carry you again,” Undyne said. Before she could however, Papyrus’ sight flickered back on. 

He looked behind him and shrieked. A black fog was seeping its way through the trees toward the three monsters. It moved at a quick pace, swirling across the snow in threatening waves. It was vast and imminent, and Papyrus could feel its vile ambience. It was the shadows, the darkness, the sickness that wouldn’t leave him alone. Papyrus ran and the two monsters followed quickly behind.

Like everything else, Papyrus could feel that the fog was connected to him somehow. It was his dark thoughts and unused magic in a visible form. 

_Unused magic…_ he got an idea.

While Undyne and Doggo kept running, Papyrus used his magic on his own soul. When his soul turned blue, he lifted himself from the ground and started running a bit clumsily in the air. He lifted himself higher and higher until he was above most of the tree branches, trying desperately to use up his magic. _‘I could have killed them’_ he thought. _‘I could have lifted those bullies high into the air and then dropped them. It would have been easy. I wouldn’t ever have to deal with them again. I could have-’_ Papyrus grew closer to the ground until his energy was spent and he crashed into the snow. Now overcome with exhaustion, the darkness in his soul was finally gone.

He lifted his head slowly to see Undyne and Doggo run to his side. “I-Is the fog g-gone?” he rasped.

“Yeah, what was that?” Doggo panted. “Also, are you ok?”

Papyrus sat up. “I’m f-fine,” he shivered. “And I’m not sure what that was.” He wasn’t exactly lying. All of his problems with darkness were things that only happened within his mind. So a magical fog that all three of them could see and react to couldn’t have anything to do with that… right?

“I didn’t know you could fly!” Undyne exclaimed.

“It’s m-more like gravity c-control. B-But yeah I guess I-I can fly… k-kind of.”

The two monsters helped Papyrus get up and then the three of them walked to Papyrus’ house. Undyne wanted to carry him, but Papyrus said he was fine walking.

As tired and hurt as he was, Papyrus was so glad that the darkness had finally left. Whether or not the fog was connected to him, he was still getting odd blackouts and thoughts about harming other monsters. He sighed to himself. He was trying to get better, but things were only getting worse. Papyrus could only wonder what his nightmares were going to be like that night.

Along the way back Doggo was able to pick up Papyrus’ coat and backpack. Even though the coat was wet, he put it on, desperate for any warmth for his trembling body. The walk home was short but still unpleasant for him as he limped along with his friends. Finally, Undyne opened the front door and quickly ushered the other two inside. 

“hey, pap,” Sans said calmly as he slowly walked from his room and down the stairs. “you’re home late today. i was worried at first-” He stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Sans’ face was the most stunned he had ever seen it the moment he actually looked at Papyrus. His eye was already starting to glow a faint blue.

“Hello, S-Sans,” Papyrus quivered awkwardly. “Nyeh heh h-heh…”


	6. Desire for Fire

Papyrus stared into his mug of hot chocolate. The whipped cream had melted, leaving a milky substance to swirl around the top of the drink. The way it swirled reminded him of the fog that was crawling to him not too long ago. He shuddered for a second.

The little skeleton was sitting at the kitchen table, wrapped tightly in several blankets. That and the hot beverage allowed Papyrus to stop shivering after some time. He poked his hands out from the blankets to grab the mug again. Sans had made the hot chocolate for him and his friends, and for Papyrus he added a bunch of healing magic that was stored in liquid bottles to his drink. With every sip he took, he could feel his aching pain melt away bit by bit. It also made his whole body feel warm and tingly.

Undyne sat next to Papyrus, wasting no time trying to gulp down her beverage as quickly as possible. While that was happening Doggo was finding more pleasure in the cinnamon stick that was sitting in his mug, and was chewing on it contentedly while he told an upset looking Sans what had happened.

“...So then I found your brother in the woods,” Doggo pointed to Papyrus with the cinnamon stick, “Which by the way he’s a much cooler monster than you. He was getting beat up by those rabbits and that snowdrake, but I came in and fought them off until they ran away. After that, Undyne… it’s Undyne, right?” Undyne finished her drink with one final gulp and nodded enthusiastically. “...Yeah, Undyne came out of nowhere and tried to save Papyrus from a threat that wasn’t even there anymore.”

Undyne pounded her fist on the table. “I got there as fast as I could! I live all the way in Waterfall!”

Doggo rolled his eyes and continued to gnaw on the stick. “So, anyway, after that there was this giant dark fog that suddenly appeared, and it was sweeping to us like it was chasing us.” The dog sighed. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it was black and scary, and there was a lot of it. It made me feel really fearful and angry at the same time. I was filled with all of these horrible emotions, but without knowing why.”

Undyne nodded in agreement. “It was like the fog wanted to attack us emotionally.”

“So,” Doggo continued, “we ran away from that as fast as we could, but then Papyrus here just flew into the air, and soon after that the fog basically disappeared. Then Papyrus crashed into the snow and we brought him home. And that is the story of why he looks like shit.”

Sans flinched. “watch your language, kid.”

“Sorry.” Doggo then started lapping at his hot chocolate.

Sans looked down at his hands in thought for a while, before he shrugged to himself and asked Doggo, “are you the one that was assigned to be papyrus’ buddy?”

“Yep,” the dog replied before he continued to lick his mug clean.

Sans let out a stressed breath and put his face into his hands. “out of all the kids they could have chosen,” he murmured. 

Doggo leaned back into his chair. “Oh, yeah. How dare them.” He then went back to chewing on the cinnamon stick.

Sans looked at Undyne and asked, “how did you even find them in the woods?”

“Friends always know how to find each other.” She said it like she had practiced it in her head.

He looked unsure by that, but then just let out another breath as he looked at the clock. “you two need to go home,” Sans told them, “i don’t know what the fog means, but it’s probably some crazy monster trying to attack others with a strange magic. i’ll be sure to report it to the royal guard, maybe they can do something about it, i don’t know. but whatever it is, it’s probably dangerous. do either of you need me to walk you home?”

“Nope!” Undyne’s chair scooted loudly as she stood up. “I’ll be home so fast, you would never be able to keep up!”

Doggo stood up too and said, “I live like a minute from here. I’m fine.” He looked at Papyrus and added, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, buddy.”

Papyrus smiled. “I’m looking forward to school tomorrow already!”

Undyne patted his skull gently. “Watch your back, punk! You’ll be seeing me before you know it! Get better soon, Papyrus!”

“Thanks!” Papyrus then watched while Sans hastily led the two kids out of the house.

Once he shut the door, Sans silently walked over and sat next to Papyrus, who was sipping at the last of his drink.

“is everything doggo said true?” he asked plainly.

The skeleton slowly nodded and set down the mug.

“so you’re telling me,” his eye lights grew dimmer, “that when you got attacked by a bunch of monsters, you thought it would be a good idea to run straight into the forest where no one could help you?”

Papyrus shrunk back into the blankets. “I-I’m s-sorry,” he stuttered.

“you could have died out there!” his voice was cold and angry. “the forest isn’t safe, you know! i thought you were smart enough to comprehend that! i don’t know what the hell that fog was, but it was probably magic from an insane monster that wanted to take you, or kill you, or god knows what!” He stood from the table and towered over his little brother, who was starting to tremble with cries. “if i lost you to the forest, i would never be able to forgive myself! and it would all be because your skull is too thick to understand how this cruel world works!” By the time he ended his rant, his eye was glowing with rage.

Papyrus hid his face with the blankets, trying pathetically not to sob so loud.

As he continued to cry, he felt a hand lightly touch his head. He flinched uncomfortably. “bro,” Sans’ voice was now softer and mournful. “i’m sorry i yelled at you. i just worry about you a lot, you’re all i have, after all. i need you to be more careful, ok? please just focus on your safety, and don’t go to places where you would be completely alone. that’s all i want. and if you ever, ever feel like something’s not right, and that you could be in some kind of danger, you let me know immediately, alright?”

Papyrus nodded many times from under the blankets. He thought about the shadow creature in Waterfall, but he pushed that away. That had just been in his mind. His sick, horrible mind.

The world was a maze of dark metal hallways. Papyrus couldn’t tell the difference between the ceiling, walls, or floor. He could step on a wall, and it would turn into the floor. He could jump to the ceiling, but it would transform to landing on the floor. No matter which step he took, it only became the same. With every step forward he was getting nowhere.

_‘I could kill them all.’_ Those weren’t his words. _‘Or if killing is too merciful, I could make them suffer deeply.’_ Those couldn’t be his words. _‘After everything they did to us, why should we ever consider mercy? We will get out of here. I will get us out of here. And then we will take back our victory. I will kill them all.’_

Papyrus was surrounded. Fog twisted around his ankles, holding him in place. Shadows grew around him on the metal sides of the endless halls. Someone was coming.

He struggled as hard as he could, but he could barely move. He could only gasp out a single “Please!” before his breathing was way out of control. Right when it touched his shoulder, his blurry sight switched to complete darkness. 

_‘I am here.’_

He woke up with his chest heaving so hard he thought it might collapse. Papyrus sat up trembling in bed. He probably hadn’t been more scared in his entire life, until he saw what was at the edge of his bed.

“SAAAAAAAAANS!”

The thing vanished right when Papyrus screamed for his brother. Sans then opened the door within seconds. As Papyrus sobbed uncontrollably, Sans rushed over to sit on the bed and hugged his brother firmly. 

“S-Sa-ans…” Papyrus cried.

“it’s ok,” he whispered soothingly, “it was just another nightmare. i’m here now. i’m here-”

“N-No,” He cut in, trying his best to speak through his weeping, “There w-was a d-demon! A d-dem _-hic-_ on! I-It was r-red and had h-horns! B-Brother it was real _-hic-_ ”

“ok.” Papyrus grimaced at how unconvinced Sans sounded. But then, who would ever believe that? Maybe it was just another crazy illusion from his head.

Sans remained hugging Papyrus until the little skeleton eventually calmed down enough to stop trembling and control his breathing. He then said, “maybe we could go to grillby’s for breakfast. how does that sound?”

Papyrus didn’t even know they had breakfast. Wait, what time was it?

“school already started,” Sans explained as if he could read Papyrus’ mind, “i let you sleep in because you’re still recovering. i know you don’t like skipping, but you needed this day off. i called the school and they even agree with me. i think it would do you good to get out of the house though, and you can get whatever you want at grillby’s.” He chuckled then added, “even if that’s just a glass of milk.”

Papyrus nodded slowly. Even though he wasn’t a big fan of Grillby’s they did have good milk. Also after seeing that demon, he never wanted to be alone in his room ever again. 

His legs shook slightly when he stood up, but he had enough energy to change into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Sans then went out of his way to layer Papyrus in two jackets and a coat. To be fair Papyrus was slightly shivering, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t because he was cold.

Once they were ready, Sans took Papyrus’ hand and together they took the short walk from their house to Grillby’s. The restaurant was warm and comforting, and only a few other monsters were scattered around since it was an odd time of the day to be there.

When they entered Grillby’s the few monsters appeared to be glancing at Papyrus with worried expressions. The little skeleton shrunk behind Sans, trying to dodge everyone’s eyes. He knew he looked horrible. He could still feel the tear tracks that stained his cheeks and the shivers that ran through his body. Not only that, but Snowdin was so small that everyone would know Papyrus was supposed to be at school right now. 

Sans also seemed to notice the attention he was getting, so he continued to hold his hand and led him to a booth in the corner of the restaurant. Papyrus sat on the inside closest to the wall, while Sans sat next to him by the edge of the booth. Papyrus scooted as close to Sans as he could, pushing himself into his brother in hopes to feel better. He leaned his head on Sans’ arm and let out a quavering breath.

There was a candle sitting on the table. Papyrus watched the tiny flame flicker lively. One could easily blow it out, leaving it to be nothing but a wisp of smoke. On the other hand, if the candle was knocked over, the flame could spread and burn down the table, maybe even the entire restaurant. Papyrus wondered what would happen if he touched the flame. Maybe it would burn away the darkness that was eating him inside. He didn’t know.

“bro? what do you want?”

Papyrus tore his gaze away from the candle. Grillby was standing at the table, looking at Papyrus with his usual blank expression. However, his fire seemed to crackle more slowly with unease. “Are you cold?” the fire monster asked. 

Still shivering, Papyrus nodded. He guessed he was cold, even though it was more like a coldness that hurt his soul deep inside. 

“I know something that will help.” Grillby turned to leave before he added, “The food is on me today, so don’t worry about the gold.”

“grillby!” Sans exclaimed upsetly while Grillby hurried away. “you know i can’t let you do that!” He then let out a defeated sigh and wrapped his arm around Papyrus. 

After a few moments, he thought of something to ask. Papyrus raised his head to look at his brother, then asked in a weak voice, “What happened when the world went dark?”

Sans looked back down at him with a slightly confused expression. “when what?”

“Undyne told me that a few months ago the entire Underground blacked out for a bit. Everyone lost a few memories about what happened that day. Was I still in my coma then?”

His brother hesitated for a moment before he said, “yeah. i think that happened a few days before you woke up, actually.”

“So nobody knows what happened?”

“nope.” He paused then added, “and it doesn’t matter anymore. it’s in the past now.”

After some more silence, Papyrus asked in a smaller voice, “Could you please tell me one thing from my past? Just one story? I promise I won’t ask for any more.”

Sans let out a short breath. “you know i’m not supposed to.”

“I know, I know. But these nightmares are getting more… real. And I’m starting to believe that they were a part of my past. If I could just get one small story, that just lets me know that everything was ok, I think it would help me a lot.”

His brother’s smile slightly lifted. “you’re very persuasive, you know that?”

Papyrus pressed himself closer to Sans. Just knowing that he was going to get a story made him feel better. He hoped that it was true; that hearing good things from his life would push the dark fabrications away. 

“alright, well i guess i’ll tell you this much, we used to live in hotland.”

He perked up from the news, but remained silent. He didn’t want to interrupt a story this important.

“when you were younger, you used to have a lot of nightmares then too. every time you had a nightmare, i would do my best to comfort you. just like now, i guess. one night, you woke up crying and i came in to help you. i told you to draw a picture, so you drew our family. it was a lovely drawing. you used so many colors! after that i rubbed circles into your back, just like i’m doing now.” Sans’ arm had moved to rub Papyrus’ back in a soothing gesture. It was something he did often. Papyrus smiled warmly when he realized that his shivering had finally subsided. 

“i then told you that the nightmares weren’t real, and no matter what happened i would always be there for you.” He stopped talking as if he finished his story, but then added, “you had the accident in hotland. it’s pretty dangerous there. i decided to move us to snowdin after that. i think it would be best if you tried to stay away from hotland. it could mess with your head.”

Papyrus nodded against Sans’ jacket. “Do you still have the picture?” he asked.

“no, i’m afraid not. when we moved we left almost everything behind.”

Papyrus was a little disappointed by that, but overall he felt much better than before. The nightmares he got now were probably memories of nightmares from his past, but none of it was real. And Sans was probably right about Hotland. If Papyrus’ mind could get any worse, he didn’t want to risk it by going to the place where he got the accident in the first place. 

Grillby returned with some fries for Sans and a strange milkshake for Papyrus. The milkshake was tall and orange, with what appeared to be steam lifting from it. The skeleton scooted away from Sans a bit to look at the milkshake questionably.

“It’s called a fireshake,” Grillby explained, “It’s a pretty magical dessert. Instead of cooling you down, this one warms you up.”

Interested, Papyrus grabbed the straw and took a sip. His eye sockets widened. If warmth had a taste, this was it. It kind of tasted like vanilla and cinnamon, and was extremely sweet. He could feel the heat course through his body, filling him with glowing pleasantness. As he continued to sip, he felt a rush of energy. His bones were tingling and his soul was burning passionately. 

“Oh my god!” he yelled a little too loud. He blushed and covered his mouth with his hands in embarrassment.

Grillby crossed his arms victoriously. “Like it?” he chuckled.

Papyrus nodded eagerly and continued to gulp down the milkshake. He had forgotten how good it felt to be free of darkness and full of liveliness.

\---

Undyne studied her project again. It was still missing something. She stomped her foot in annoyance, trying to think what she was missing. “Ah ha!” She leaped at the realization. “We need more yellow!” She grabbed her paintbrush and dipped it into the yellow paint.

“Are you almost done?” Papyrus asked impatiently.

“I just need to paint this flower, and then I’ll be finished. Now hold still!”

Papyrus remained unmoving while Undyne carefully painted a yellow flower on his forehead. She then carefully used a smaller brush to trace out some green vines that curled out from the flower elegantly.

When she was done, she took a step back and proudly looked at her work of art. Everyone at school was going to be so impressed. “It is complete!” she exclaimed while throwing her fists in the air. 

Papyrus moved to stand up, but Undyne quickly put her hands out to stop him. “That doesn’t mean you can move!” she shouted. “We have to wait for the paint to dry!”

“What?” Papyrus looked very disappointed. “How long does that take?”

“It takes as long as it needs to!” she explained hastily. Undyne then grabbed a mirror beside her and pointed it to Papyrus so that he could see himself for the first time since she began painting. “What do you think?”

The skeleton was trying so hard not to move while he squealed frantically. “I love it! I’m so beautiful! I look like a garden! Undyne, you are so talented!”

Undyne blushed slightly from the compliments. “You were a perfect canvas,” she admitted while she sat in front of him. Papyrus’ entire face was covered in painted flowers and plants. His eyes were outlined by green vines with red flowers on them. He also had blue echo flowers on his cheekbones, and a tall pine tree that grew along the side of his head. The rest of his face was mostly covered with colorful petals, mushrooms, and vines.

It had been a few days since the day with the fog, and today after school Undyne had to present her art project to the class. While Undyne didn’t get why this had to be an after school activity, she was glad it was because it allowed her to use Papyrus as her project, who had finished his school for the day as well. Now she would finally be able to show off her best friend. 

Whenever she told Aaron and her other classmates about Papyrus, they almost didn’t believe her. None of them had ever seen a skeleton before. Some even thought that skeletons were extinct, or didn’t exist at all. But today Undyne would prove them all wrong! Not only that, but she was certain that she had the best looking project in Waterfall. She had never put this much effort into a school project before, but she had to put in one hundred percent for someone like Papyrus.

Undyne was glad that things had gone back to normal. She could still remember that sudden feeling she got when she was walking back home in Waterfall. It seemed like every time she got this feeling, the power it had on her soul was stronger. She followed the calls from within, and it led her right to Papyrus and Doggo. When the fog came, it was terrifying. It was a swarm of horrible black murkiness, inching closer to them in the most threatening way. The worst part about it all was that her soul felt different than it ever had before. She knew it didn’t make sense, but it felt like in that moment her soul was now Papyrus’. She had felt the fear, anger, and conflicting emotions within herself. Sometimes she wished that she could question Papyrus about it, but it was still probably too soon to discuss that. That event had left him shaken for an alarming long time.

“So after this we go to your school?” Papyrus asked.

Undyne nodded energetically. “I can’t wait for you to meet everyone!” Right now, they were sitting in one of Waterfall’s smallest caves. It was lit with several mushrooms and stone stars, and wasn’t too far from her and Gerson’s house. This small lone cave was the perfect place to work on her art project.

“I also can’t wait to meet everyone! I hope they’re all nice!”

“They’re all fine,” Undyne insisted, “And if they’re not, I’ll just knock ‘em out!” She punched the air several times.

“Wowie.”

“Ok, we are slightly late, but don’t worry! We are almost there!” Undyne grabbed Papyrus’ hand to drag him along faster to her school.

When they got to the right cave, everyone was already there. The kids all sat before Gerson with their art projects beside them. Undyne and Papyrus skidded to a halt behind the kids and panted heavily.

“Well, look who’s finally here,” Gerson said with a smile. “Ya know, they won’t let ya into the Royal Guard if yer not on time to things.”

“I-I’m barely late,” Undyne huffed. “But I’m sorry anyway. Please excuse my tardiness.”

Before Gerson could say anything else, the kids had all noticed Papyrus by now, and most of her classmates had surrounded the two in awe. Papyrus naturally moved himself closer to Undyne when they were approached by the small crowd of monsters.

“Oh my god,” Aaron said, gaping at Papyrus’ bare arms. “He literally has no muscles!”

“Wow, so it really is a skeleton,” Woshua commented. “Did you paint his face?”

“Yep!” Undyne beamed. “He is my art project!”

The kids continued to whisper and gawk with excitement. As if intimidated by this, Papyrus grabbed Undyne’s arm and slightly hid himself behind her. Undyne looked down to see that he was still watching the other monsters eagerly.

“Ok, ok,” Undyne announced to her fellow classmates, “You all can go sit back down now. Gerson, is it ok if I present first?”

Gerson, who was watching amusingly from the back of the small cave, said, “Sure, Undyne. Now everyone sit down and be quiet, so we can give our first presenter some respectful attention.”

While everyone sat with their projects, Undyne had Papyrus hold her hand instead of her entire arm and then walked up next to Gerson. Her guardian stepped aside so that he could watch the presentation.

“For my art project, I focused on two aspects: plants and unique canvases! As you can see, I used many different styles and colors to make the plants look both realistic and voguish. But what takes this art to the next level, is the canvas! By using my friend, I am using symbolism. You see, even though Papyrus is a plain white skeleton, his personality is vibrant and colorful! So, by painting my art on his face, I am revealing his true colors.” While Undyne spent some more time explaining how the colors and styles reflected Papyrus’ personality, the skeleton blushed several times from the many compliments. When Undyne finished, she looked over at Gerson anxiously. 

“Well done, Undyne,” the teacher commended while he clapped his hands. The rest of the class applauded as well. Undyne smiled and bowed quickly before she took Papyrus’ hand and sat with Aaron on the floor. While Gerson got ready for the next presenter, Napstablook, who was sitting in front of her, turned around nervously. 

“You did a great job, Undyne,” Napstablook said with a hint of guilt. “I’m sorry I doubted that your skeleton friend was real.”

“That’s ok, Napstablook!” Undyne piped, “And I’m sure your project is great too!”

“Napstablook,” Gerson said while looking at a bunch of papers, “It’s yer turn.”

“Oh no,” the ghost lowered his head in shame. “My project is horrible compared to Undyne’s.” He slowly drifted up and took his project to the wall of the cave. His project was a big rectangle canvas that was painted black and had colorful scattered shapes throughout it. “This is…” he paused and stared at his painting. Napstablook sighed wistfully. “This is really bad. Nooooo, I’m so sorry, this is so bad.”

As the ghost continued to sulk, Papyrus seemed interested. While everyone remained silent, he called out, “This is great! It looks like the stone star cave, but more vast and mysterious. How did you come up with that?”

Napstablook looked shocked, then said, “I...um… I sometimes think about a place like this when I lie on the floor. When I chill, I think about what could be outside of the Underground, and this always comes to mind. This painting kind of represents what I see. It’s a big dark world out there, but it’s full of bright wonderful things.” After explaining what some of the shapes were, he stopped himself and looked around. He then once again lowered his head in shame. “Oh nooooo,” he moaned. “I talked for too long, didn’t I?”

“Not at all!” Papyrus reassured. “I could listen to you talk about this painting forever!”

“Yes, you did a very good job, Napstablook,” Gerson agreed. They all clapped while the ghost uncomfortably took his project to sit back down.

While the next kid went up to present, Napstablook turned and said to Papyrus, “Thank you for doing that for me, even though I don’t deserve it. I think you saved my grade.”

Papyrus smiled. “I was just getting to know an incredible artist! You’re the one who deserves that grade!”

“Oh nooo,” the ghost moaned as he turned back around. “He’s so nice, I’m gonna get emotional…”

It was now late at night. Undyne didn’t have school tomorrow, so Gerson had allowed her to train extra late. She was practicing running through the water. Even though she was a great swimmer, she needed to be prepared to run through waist-deep water. That way she could fight and move through rivers at the same time.

At this time of night, Waterfall was almost silent. The only things that could be heard were the rushing and dripping of water, and the distant whispers of echo flowers. The scattered stone stars twinkled ahead, guiding her to one of the bigger rivers.

Because Waterfall was so empty, she was very surprised to find that the river wasn’t alone.

This river was massive, rushing hastily from an enormous waterfall to a cliff where it poured off the edge into a dark abyss. Standing in the cold water near the edge of the cliff, a yellow dinosaur-like monster was wearing a white jacket. They were looking out into the darkness, with their back facing Undyne.

Curious, she waded through the water to the mysterious monster. She soon realized that the jacket was a labcoat. What were they doing here all the way from Hotland?

The monster never turned around, but when Undyne came close enough they asked aloud in a soft feminine voice, “Do you know what it would be like to disappear?”

Undyne stopped in her tracks. The water continued to run past her body and over the cliff. They were both pretty close to the edge. It made her feel a bit sick. “I’m not sure what you mean,” she finally replied.

“All of this water just runs from the c-cliff and to the darkness. We have no idea where it goes. What would happen if a m-monster fell down there?”

Undyne couldn’t help but flinch. This topic was kind of terrifying. “Well, I definitely don’t want to go down there anytime soon.” She tried to say it lightly.

The monster sighed. “What if a monster already f-fell down there? What if they disappeared, and we can’t remember? D-Do you think if I jumped I would be forgotten?”

Undyne was now actually scared for the monster. Were they going to jump? “Can you look at me?” she asked worriedly. 

The monster slowly shuffled in the water to turn around. She was a little dinosaur, looking both smaller and younger than Undyne. It was strange to see someone so young in a lab coat. It was also strange to see a monster like her speak of extremely dark topics.

She was going to ask for her age, but then Undyne remembered when Papyrus told her that it was inappropriate to ask for an age before a name. “I’m Undyne,” she said with her usual confidence. “What’s your name?”

“Alphys,” she said quietly. She continued to glance over her shoulder, as if she was still considering the darkness behind her. 

“How old are you?”

“F-Fifteen.”

Undyne was a bit shocked by that. “You look pretty young for your age.”

“Well, anime characters d-don’t look their a-age either.”

“What’s anime?”

Alphys moaned and put her face in her hands. “Oh, dear god.”

Undyne wasn’t sure if she just offended Alphys or not. What was really bothering her though was that Alphys’ tail was slightly hanging off the edge of the watery cliff. “You know,” Undyne said as calmly as she could, “If you disappeared, I would remember. And trust me, I would never get over it. As the future head of the Royal Guard, it is my duty to help monsters in need. And right now, I want to do nothing but help you.”

Alphys turned her attention back to Undyne. “I-I’ve done h-horrible things. I don’t know if I c-can keep going on like this a-alone.”

“You don’t have to be alone. If you want, you can be my friend. And then we can hang out all the time.”

Alphys looked surprised. “You w-would do that?”

“I love making unique friends and helping monsters in need. So that’s a double win!”

After Alphys gave the cliff a final glance, she nodded. “Ok. I accept your offer.”

Undyne jumped excitedly. “Great! Let me walk you home. I’m guessing you live in Hotland?”

Alphys nodded while she walked with Undyne out of the water. “Y-Yeah, in the Hotland Lab.”

“Do you work there?”

“Yes, a-and I know, I’m too young to be a scientist.”

“That’s not true. I’m thirteen, and already the greatest warrior to ever exist!” She kicked the air to prove her point. 

Alphys giggled. “I think you would like anime.”

“If it means hanging out with you more, I would love to try this anime.”

“It’s a d-deal then.”

As they continued to walk by the glowing plants and stone stars on their way out of Waterfall, Undyne couldn’t help but feel that her soul was fluttering.


	7. Strolling Through Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m suuuuper happy with where this is going. Hope you all are enjoying it as well!

“So, a few of my family members are in the Royal Guard,” Doggo said while he chewed on his pencil. “But there have been no signs of a strange fog. It seems like we were the only ones to ever encounter it.” He looked at Papyrus from his desk as if he was expecting the skeleton to say something.

Papyrus looked down to dodge the dog’s unfocused eyes. “Yeah, that was all pretty weird.”

“You know what else was weird? That fog disappeared almost right after you started ‘flying’, or whatever you wanna call it.”

The skeleton shrunk in his seat. “Hmmm, yes. Very weird.”

“Why did you fly anyway?” Doggo snorted. “Were you planning on ditching us to that eerie magic?”

“No! Of course not! I was just, uh…” Papyrus played with the sleeves of his coat. He was starting to wear his coat more often, even when inside the warm buildings. He was always getting cold nowadays. “... I thought that maybe flying would distract the fog from you guys!”

“Well, I guess that’s kind of you,” Doggo said while he turned to face the front of the classroom. 

Papyrus let out a tiny sigh. He knew that Doggo was trying to figure out if he had something to do with the fog. He also knew that whatever was controlling the shadows, nightmares, and dark thoughts wasn’t going away. If anything, it was growing stronger. But who could Papyrus tell? Who could even help, or believe him? Besides, Papyrus was confident in himself. He was bold and kind enough to defeat the darkness within him. He just had to believe it.

When the teacher entered the classroom, she began taking attendance as usual. She skipped the names of the bullies, because they were no longer allowed in Papyrus’ class. Papyrus hoped that they would turn to be nicer monsters on their own. 

Papyrus’ name was between a slime kid and Doggo. However, after the slime said that he was here, the teacher called for Doggo’s name right when Papyrus had opened his mouth to be ready for his part of attendance.

“Here,” Doggo said absentmindedly while rolling the pencil on his desk. While the teacher continued to call names, Papyrus tapped Doggo’s shoulder to get his attention. 

“She didn’t call my name,” he whispered. “What do I do?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I got this.” Right when the teacher finished attendance, Doggo raised his paw. 

“Yes, Doggo?” she asked sweetly.

“You forgot Papyrus’ name.”

“Who?”

Papyrus jerked back in his seat. The kids in class exchanged confused glances between Papyrus and the teacher, making the skeleton’s face blush with embarrassment. When the teacher looked at Papyrus, her eyes were dim for a few seconds before they lit up with realization.

“Oh my goodness! I am so sorry, Papyrus. I must be having an off day.”

“It-it’s ok,” Papyrus said weakly. He did his best to hide his embarrassed face. How could the teacher forget him? He had been a student for months now, and the teacher was involved with Papyrus’ entire bully situation.

Papyrus did his best to get through the rest of class like he was fine. He had to just accept that she was having an off day. Papyrus understood that. Everybody had those. But then why was it still bothering him so much?

Doggo must have been able to see that Papyrus was still upset while he walked him home from school. “Don’t worry about that old lady,” he said. “Older monsters always forget names for no reason.”

“She looked like she didn’t just forget my name,” Papyrus said quietly. “She looked like she forgot about me entirely.”

“Well, I guess older monsters can do that too.”

Papyrus wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t question it. Doggo was right. He shouldn’t worry about something so small, especially with everything else going on. 

When Papyrus got home, he was surprised to find Sans and Undyne in the kitchen. Right when he closed the front door, his best friend ran up and threw the backpack off his shoulders. “You’re finally here!” she cheered. “We are going to make gyftmas cookies! C’mon!” She then began to unbutton Papyrus’ yellow coat. 

Before Papyrus could speak the coat was off him. Even with his sweater underneath, he was still shivering. He could really go for one of those fireshakes again. 

While Undyne dragged Papyrus into the kitchen, Sans seemed to notice his younger brother’s shivering. “are you sick?” he asked worriedly. 

“N-No! I’m just a b-bit cold,” Papyrus confessed.

Sans’ face looked troubled while he put his hand on Papyrus’ forehead. “you don’t feel hot so that’s good, but you do feel a lot colder than usual. how cold is it out there?”

“Extra c-cold.” Papyrus knew that probably wasn’t true. He was probably cold for the same reason he was being chased by shadows. 

While Sans went upstairs to get Papyrus more layers, the little skeleton asked Undyne, “How d-did you get here before I did?”

“I got out of school early, punk!” Undyne jumped with excitement. “And so I had Gerson call Sans to see if I could come over, and he said that I could help you guys make cookies!” She proudly put her hand on her chest. “Which is perfect, because I’m an amazing chef!”

Sans came back downstairs with a sweatshirt that Papyrus put on gratefully. “i have another jacket if you need it,” he said while putting the jacket on the couch. Even with the sweater underneath, the sweatshirt was bulky on Papyrus but he was able to roll up the sleeves so that they weren’t in the way. Other than that, the sweatshirt was exceptional at keeping him warm.

Now that Papyrus was no longer shivering, Sans went over to the ingredients on the kitchen counter. The two younger monsters followed eagerly. 

“the oven is already preheated,” Sans informed while looking down at a notecard that had the recipe on it, “so first we need to stir together the dry ingredients.”

Sans then set a big bowl on the kitchen table, and allowed Undyne and Papyrus to take turns pouring in the ingredients using measuring cups. “I can stir it!” Undyne shouted vigorously. “I am the best at stirring!”

Without any more hesitation, Undyne took the mixer and stirred rapidly. Within a few seconds, flour flew from the bowl, covering Papyrus and Undyne in a white powder. The two laughed gleefully while Sans let out a stressed breath and took the bowl from Undyne.

After that Sans decided that he would finish baking the cookies on his own, then Papyrus and Undyne would get to frost them later. While Sans took over the two flour-covered monsters did their best to wipe off with some damp towels before they sat on the couch and put on part of a movie. 

“Can you believe that Gyftmas is almost here?” Undyne asked brightly.

Papyrus moved himself closer to Undyne and leaned his head on her shoulder. “Of course I can believe it! Gyftmas is the best!”

“Snowdin celebrates Gyftmas better than anywhere else. I wish Waterfall would get more festive.”

The skeleton thought for a bit while watching the TV. Maybe he could do something about that.

When the cookies were ready, Papyrus and Undyne sat at the kitchen table and began to decorate with the small bowls of different colored frosting. Papyrus was very careful with his cookies, adding the frosting with his spoon like it was a paintbrush. He had painted a green gyftmas tree cookie, and was delicately adding different colored specks of frosting as the decorations. Undyne didn’t seem to care about the cookies’ appearance as much as she did when she was painting Papyrus’ face. Instead, she was busy trying to get a ridiculous amount of frosting on each cookie. 

Undyne added a mountain of white to one circular cookie, before sloppily adding two black eyes and a thin smile. She pushed it to Papyrus’ direction proudly. 

“What’s that supposed to be?” Papyrus asked, inspecting Undyne’s new blob. It honestly just looked like a mess of frosting without any cookie. 

“It’s you, nerd!”

Papyrus squinted his eye sockets. “The effort’s there, but it’s not very pretty.” The black eyes were growing bigger and goopier, leaving trails to mix with the white frosting. He flinched for a second when something deep inside him recognized that face. Before he could understand that feeling however, Undyne threw the cookie into her mouth. 

“There!” Undyne yelled while wiping the frosting from her face. “No more ugly cookie!”

Papyrus was going to point out that all of her other cookies matched in looks compared to the one that she just ate, but he decided against it.

At the end of the day, Undyne got to wrap up her unique cookies to take home with her. Papyrus then helped Sans clean up the kitchen before he got ready for bed. 

Once Papyrus was in bed Sans got extra blankets from the closet to tuck him in with. Luckily he was done shivering for now, but his bones were still cold to the touch. He felt like his body was permanently stinging from the cold. Papyrus wished that Sans didn’t have to be so worried for him. Just because Papyrus was suffering didn’t mean Sans had to.

He guessed he did understand Sans’ worries though. He was also concerned about his own wellbeing. With each passing day, Papyrus was only becoming more frigid and anxious. What if he ended up getting more injured? What if he ended up injuring someone else?

With all of these thoughts and worries bubbling inside him, it was a miracle that he fell asleep before Sans finished reading his bedtime story. 

Papyrus woke in the same dark hallway. He should have been annoyed with the same old nightmares every night, but he wasn’t. Each time was equally terrifying. 

He walked down the narrow hall, not even bothering to walk on the walls or ceiling. It was all the same anyway. His bones rattled slightly while his feet clicked on the metal floor. The only other noises were the distant thunder of machinery and a ventilation system that sounded so rugged it was moaning. 

Fog slowly drifted around the floor, covering it entirely to where he could barely see his feet beneath the darkness. Shadows crept along the walls, not really taking shape. Sometimes they looked like the shadow beast that chased Papyrus through Waterfall, but they kept changing to form other odd shapes. 

Papyrus knew the moment was coming. The moment when the fog decided to grip his ankles and the shadows grew bigger. The moment when it touched him, causing his vision to black out. His breathing became more rapid just thinking about it. He started running and leaping down the hall, trying to avoid the fog that pooled around the floor. The mechanical roaring in the background rumbled louder, causing his panic to grow. It was loud enough to slightly rattle the halls he was running through. When the fog took his ankles he tried to keep running. Instead, his whole body crashed to the floor.

Papyrus gasped hoarsely while the fog took advantage of this new situation. It now pulled on his entire body like it was trying to drown him in the mist. He would have screamed if he had his voice. Instead the thundering machinery screamed for him, shaking the metal floor beneath him. Unable to move except for his loud trembling, he squeezed shut his eye sockets while he felt the familiar figure approach from behind. Papyrus couldn’t get out any words, so instead he voiced them in his head. _‘Please, let me go. Please. I’m begging you, just please!’_ That was when his own thoughts spoke back to him. _‘I am not the one trapping you. I am here to set you free.’_

“Can you wake up for me?”

He shot open his eye sockets to find a blurry red figure standing over him. When he wiped away his tears, he realized it was the demon again. His entire body and clothes were a red-orange, except for his black legs underneath the cloak he was wearing. His horns glowed slightly in the dark room. He had black crosses for eyes and a lasting cheerful smile. Even with the simply joyful looking face, he was still a demon standing over Papyrus on the bed.

Papyrus trembled under the blankets. “P-Please d-don’t hurt me,” he croaked.

The demon’s lasting smile lifted when he let out a soft chuckle. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said quietly. “Why would I do that? You’re a gift to this world.”

His trembling died down. That was a very nice thing to say. “Th-Thank you,” Papyrus whispered, still a little shakily. 

The demon sat down before Papyrus on the bed, so the skeleton sat up to meet him. The stranger seemed to be studying him. “I’ve never seen you awake before,” he commented. “Well, except the time you screamed. But I had to disappear right after that. I’m sorry that I scared you.”

Papyrus still felt very uneasy while he sat before the demon. He grabbed his many blankets, trying to find comfort in them. Once his voice wasn’t quavering so much, he asked, “Who are you?”

“Some call me the red demon, but I guess my correct term is called a sleep paralysis demon. But you can just call me Demon.” When Papyrus gave him a confused look, he said, “I get my term from when monsters wake up from a nightmare and see me standing over their bed. When they freak out, I disappear. You see, I get all of my energy and magic by consuming fear. At night I go and take the waves of fear that come from monsters when they have nightmares. If monsters wake up and see me at night, mass amounts of fear come off of them, which is great because I need fear to use my magic and therefore teleport.” Demon scooted closer to the skeleton. “Now, I’ve been coming here more often because your nightmares never seem to disappoint me. The amount of fear you give off is so vast that if I was able to store all of it, I would probably never go hungry again. However, the fear you’ve been providing is quite worrisome, and I think there might be something that I can do about it.”

Papyrus hesitated. “You’re here to help me?”

“Indeed. Because my magic comes from fear and nightmares, I can sometimes enter the nightmares of other monsters. We could try to explore your nightmares, and find the core within you that’s causing all of this fear.” 

“You look pretty cheerful for someone who deals with fear all the time,” Papyrus commented. It was odd how Demon always kept the same smile and bright voice.

“Well, we are all pretty cheerful for being trapped under a mountain for hundreds of years. Why be morose about the things you can’t change? If dealing with fear and nightmares is my role in life, then I should be happy that it’s my role. There’s always a reason within everything to keep smiling. For instance, my time with nightmares allows me to help you try to fix yours.”

Papyrus straightened his posture. “Is there really a positive to everything?”

“Absolutely.”

“What if you got robbed?”

“Then I would be even more thankful for the things I do have. I would also be happy to know that someone out there is enjoying the thing I had lost, not putting it to waste.”

Papyrus looked down in thought, trying to come up with something else. “What if I got hurt?”

“Then I would get the pleasure of helping you! Or at least watching someone help you.”

“Well… what if I died?”

Demon’s face remained unmoving for a few seconds before he said more slowly, “I assume if that did happen, my smile would probably falter a little bit. But that’s a grave topic!”

“My nightmares are grave too,” Papyrus muttered.

“Then let’s not waste any time,” Demon said while his horns got brighter. “I want you to grab onto my horns, and focus on your nightmares.”

Papyrus obeyed and shivered slightly while he reached out his arms to grab each of the horns. He then closed his eye sockets and thought about the cold dark hallways, the horrifying ambience, and the figure standing right behind him. It wasn’t long before he could feel metal under his feet.

He regained his vision to find himself standing in the hall next to Demon. His horns were shining brightly now, filling the area around them with a warm glow. Demon looked around at the fog and shadows with complete interest. “This place is terrifying,” he said with his usual smile. 

The skeleton hugged himself in order to not be so scared. Demon’s presence was definitely helping. He then quickly followed when Demon started walking down the hall. 

“This h-hallway doesn’t go anywhere,” Papyrus informed. 

Demon stopped in place. “Well this has to go somewhere. I doubt hallways are the cause of your fears.” He thought for a moment before he approached one of the large shadows on the wall. Papyrus followed nervously.

Papyrus watched Demon inspect the shadow before he suddenly walked through it. He passed straight through the shadow like it was a hole in the wall, and was gone within seconds. 

He yelped and jumped back. Papyrus didn’t understand how that worked. Also, entering the intimidating shadow was the last thing he wanted to do. However, Demon was not coming back, and the fog continued to swirl around his ankles. Papyrus took a deep breath and walked briskly into the shadow.

“You can open your eyes. It’s ok.”

Papyrus didn’t realize that he had them closed. When he opened them, he gasped. Him and Demon were standing at the edge of an odd cliff. It was like they had reached the end of the hallway, but there were no walls or ceiling around them. Instead, the world looked like a jumbled mess of floors. Narrow metal floors stretched everywhere, in all directions. There were white doors along some of them, but most were bare and zigzagged around in unfathomable ways. They stood at the edge of one of the floors, but when Papyrus looked down he realized that there was a ninety degree drop as the floor continued to stretch onward below him. He jerked back when he saw Demon walk forward and his body turned with the new angle, making it look like he was standing on a wall below Papyrus. 

Demon turned around and looked straight ahead at the skeleton that was looking down at him. “Don’t be scared because it doesn’t make sense. Gravity and physics don’t normally exist in nightmares.”

Papyrus nodded and carefully stepped over the ledge. His foot then found the wall as the new floor. Before he knew it, him and Demon were once again standing side by side. “Neat, huh?” Demon asked. Papyrus slightly nodded. “Alright, let’s find what’s through one of these doors.”

Demon led the way, and Papyrus did his best to focus on the warm glow of his horns. There was no fog or shadows with him, but Papyrus could sometimes feel fog swirl in the empty darkness next to him. Also, every once in a while a shadow would flicker on a floor that was somewhere above or below him. Luckily, Demon found a white door before anything terrible happened. 

The door slowly slid itself open, and Demon once again didn’t hesitate before he walked straight into pitch blackness. Papyrus let out shaky breaths while he quickly followed.

When he could see again, he no longer had a body. He was more like a ghost, looking down at a scene that was playing before him. Demon was also nowhere to be found. Instead Papyrus found that he was watching a small metal room looking much like the hallways from his nightmares. A strange shadow was sitting inside at a desk, working on something. Papyrus couldn’t make out the shadow’s exact shape for the life of him. Whenever he tried to focus on it, the shadow only grew more hazy. He turned his attention to the door when it burst open, filling the room with more light. 

Standing in the doorway was Sans, but he looked smaller and younger, like he was Papyrus’ age. His expressions were currently in the state of his furious grin, with his eye socket glowing dimly blue. He was wearing a labcoat, which was odd for such a young monster to wear. 

“why’d you do it?” Sans asked harshly. His voice was much higher pitched. 

When the shadow spoke, its voice was muffled and distorted. Papyrus didn’t know how he was able to understand it. _“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”_

Sans walked closer to the shadow. The fire in his eye grew brighter. “why did you make another one? i thought you only needed me.”

_“I do only need you. But I had these unwanted traits and feelings inside of me. I made another one to take those properties instead.”_

“so are you going to destroy it?”

Papyrus could almost hear the shadow’s smile. _“Do you want me to kill him?”_

“you are disgusting,” Sans growled. “i hope you know that. everything that i do here is for monsterkind. i will never do anything for you or… him.”

 _“I made you perfectly. I have always desired to be as determined as you. And because of my second creation, I believe I finally am.”_ Sans turned to leave before the shadow added, _“Oh, and please, feel free to greet your brother.”_

“i don’t have a brother.” He walked out and slammed the door behind him.

Papyrus didn’t have time to think about what that was before another white door appeared beside his non-existent body. It slid open and he was pushed into the dark entrance within seconds.

Sans was a bit older now compared to the last scene. He was still wearing the labcoat, and was busy working at his own desk in a much bigger room. Papyrus couldn’t really see what was in the room. It was the same case with the shadow. Whenever he tried to focus on something that wasn’t near Sans, it turned hazy. 

While Sans was at the desk, a tiny skeleton stumbled into the scene. Papyrus would have gasped if he could. The skeleton was… Papyrus, but a little toddler version. Papyrus had never seen a younger version of himself. But then again, these nightmares weren’t real. 

“Sans!” the little Papyrus shouted. His voice was unbelievably high and frail. He continued to stumble toward Sans, tripping on the rugged fabric he was wearing that was perhaps supposed to be a gown. “Sans!” he squeaked again. 

Sans continued to work at his desk, completely ignoring Papyrus. Then the shadow figure came into view, not too far behind Papyrus. _“That was his first word, you know. He kept calling and calling for you, but you never came. I don’t know how he knows your name. It’s not like you interact with him. He must naturally gravitate to you for some reason.”_

“does this mean you used to have feelings for me?” Sans asked while looking at his papers.

_“It certainly means he has feelings for you.”_

Sans sighed and turned to face the shadow. “what are you going to do with it?”

_“I don’t know. He’s kind of cute for now, but who knows how long that will last.”_

“well could you please take it away? i’m kind of busy.”

The shadow obeyed and picked up Papyrus before he could reach Sans’ desk. He cried while he was carried away. “Sans!” he wailed. Sans grimaced but continued to work. Eventually, Papyrus’ cries no longer echoed down the halls.

The scene skipped ahead a few hours in time, and now the room was dark and empty. Within a few moments, the door to the room slammed open, and Sans ran inside. After taking a few steps, he collapsed to the floor and sobbed uncontrollably into the sleeves of his coat.

While he continued to cry, Papyrus was spotted stumbling back up to the doorway. He was silent now, as if he had learned his lesson from last time. The tiny skeleton was clutching to his gown, unsure what to do. After some hesitation, he stumbled in and carefully made his way to Sans.

When he was right by Sans’ head, the crying skeleton sniffed and looked up at Papyrus from his sleeves. “Sans,” Papyrus voiced quietly. He then pressed his tiny hand on Sans’ skull. 

Right when he was touched by the younger skeleton, Sans’ weeping subsided. He let out a shaky breath before lifting his own hand before the tiny skeleton. Papyrus smiled and moved his hand to hold Sans’. A small blue energy glowed between their fingers. They both giggled softly. 

After that the scene once again transformed, and now it was back to the shadow in their own room, sitting at their desk. The door behind them opened slowly to reveal Sans peeking into the room. 

The shadow turned from their work to the skeleton. _“Yes?”_

Sans shyly let himself into the room. “um,” he started. “i’m running a bunch of tests in the future, and your second creation would be a lot of help to me. so you definitely shouldn’t kill him.”

 _“Fine,”_ the shadow agreed, _“If having him will help with your work.”_

“um…” Sans looked at the floor. “does he have a name?”

_“Papyrus.”_

Sans’ eye sockets couldn’t help but light up a tiny bit. “papyrus.” He then left the room and shut the door.

A third white door appeared and Papyrus’ vision went inside just as he expected. This time when he could see again, he was looking at a small dark room with a skeleton sobbing on a bed in the corner. Papyrus realized that the skeleton was once again himself, only looking around a year younger. 

Soon the door to the room opened and Sans came in, turning on the lights. Papyrus sat up in his cot and continued to tremble with cries. Sans sat with Papyrus in the bed and hugged him closely. He was still wearing a labcoat, while Papyrus now wore some black sweatpants and a white t-shirt that actually fit him quite well. 

“i’m so sorry, pap,” he said soothingly. “i didn’t know that he was going to-” Sans stopped himself when Papyrus cried harder. “...ok, it’s ok. i’m here. i won’t ever let anything bad happen to you again.” He rubbed circles into Papyrus’ back, and eventually the skeleton’s crying diminished into sparse hiccups. “why don’t you draw me a picture?”

Papyrus nodded, looking more excited from the idea. He got up from the small bed and grabbed his crayons and paper. He then went to work at his little desk while Sans watched from the cot. When Papyrus was done, he jumped back into bed and cuddled against his brother, showing him the picture.

Sans just stared at the drawing for a few moments. Tears leaked from his eye sockets. “Th-This is wh-what I want us t-to be,” Papyrus explained raspily. 

His older brother nodded and hugged Papyrus tightly again. “it’s beautiful.” He then held Papyrus back and looked into his eye sockets. “i will get us out of here. you deserve a life away from the mess you’ve been in. we will leave this place, and you won’t ever have to worry about anything again. i promise.” 

Sans pulled his brother into another hug while the scene faded into nothingness. 

“i promise.”

Papyrus woke up and fell back into his bed when he let go of Demon’s horns. He sat up and took some deep breaths to organize his thoughts. What even was all of that?

“Did- did you see it?” Papyrus asked.

“I doubt I saw what you saw,” Demon confessed, “When I walked through the white door, I was brought to a new floor. You never showed up though, even after I waited for you. I decided to walk through the maze until I found another door to go through. I kept doing that until you woke up.”

Papyrus nodded. “I-I think every time you walked through a d-door, a new scene was played before my eyes. I don’t think a-any of those scenes were real though.”

“Did any of those scenes have your fears?”

“No, n-not really. I don’t know wh-what they mean.” Those scenes hadn’t scared him at all. But then, why was he trembling?

Demon looked to the window and saw that light was beginning to pour in. “Well, if those scenes weren’t scary, then I guess we found the solution. Whenever you enter a nightmare, just walk through the shadows. Then you can walk through a door and have normal dreams. That seems easy enough.” Papyrus tried to say something, but Demon interrupted him. “I’ve got to go. But don’t worry about those nightmares. If they keep coming back, that means I’ll probably be back again too. And isn’t that something to look forward to?”

Before Papyrus could reply, Demon vanished and he was left alone in the room.

Demon’s timing was perfect, because a few seconds later Sans opened the door and peered inside. He smiled at Papyrus, who was still sitting up in bed. “hey,” he said gently. “i heard some noises coming from here. did you have a nightmare?”

Unsure what to say, Papyrus finally got himself to stop quivering and replied, “No.”

\---

Undyne took another swing of milk. In the moment, she had thought it was genius to flood her cookies with frosting. Now she was starting to regret that.

“Dang,” she said aloud through a mouthful of cookie, “I screwed these cookies up.”

Alphys was nibbling at the ends of her cookie, taking many sips of milk in between. “The cookies aren’t bad. They just have a lot of frosting.”

“Frosting them was the only thing I did. I screwed them up.”

“Oh. Well, they’re s-still tasty.”

The two were sitting on the couch at the Hotland Lab, watching one of Alphys’ animes while eating Undyne’s destroyed cookies. Undyne found that she did like anime. The action was great, the plot was engaging, and the girls were… hot.

As wonderful as the anime was, Undyne couldn’t help but think about the odd thing she noticed when coming into the lab. Inside the lab by the entrance, there was a board full of nametags of the scientists that had worked there throughout the years. Undyne didn’t recognize any of the names except for one. Sans.

“Did Sans the skeleton ever work here?” she asked Alphys while the TV was playing a slower scene.

Alphys practically jumped in her cushion. “H-How d-did y-you know?" she stammered. 

“Sans’ name tag is on the board downstairs.”

The dinosaur put her face into her hands and cursed at herself. “How c-could I have f-forgotten that? A-After everything else I-I’ve-” she cut herself off and looked at Undyne. “H-How d-do you know S-Sans?”

“I’m best friends with his brother.”

Alphys looked startled. “S-Sans has a b-brother!?”

“Yeah, Papyrus.”

Alphys looked as confused as Undyne felt. “H-How could he h-have a brother?” she whispered to herself. She seemed to be freaking out more and more by the second, and acting like Undyne wasn’t even there.

Undyne quickly took both of Alphys’ hands into hers and looked at her dead in the eyes. “Alphys,” she said as soothingly as possible. The dinosaurs' breaths eventually calmed down. Undyne then asked, “When did Sans work here?”

“U-um,” Alphys hesitated, “I-I’m not s-sure. We didn’t work a lot t-together, but I know th-that he didn’t like it and h-he left for some p-private reasons and I-I’m not s-supposed to t-tell-”

“Ok,” Undyne said while Alphys started to freak out again. She hugged her lightly to comfort the monster. “I’m sorry I asked about something so private. I’ll be sure to keep it a secret.”

“Th-Thanks,” Alphys murmured. After that they continued to watch the TV, enjoying the comfort of leaning on each other. 

Undyne did her best to not think about Sans and the lab anymore. It wasn’t any of her business if he had issues with working there. Still, with the way Alphys had freaked out and how she was shocked about Papyrus, it seemed like there was something more going on that she needed to know.

  
  


Failure.

Everything you’ve worked towards has ended in failure.

Who can you tell? Will they ever know what you did?

You might have had a chance. 

Just a glint of hope to keep going. 

But you gave that up.

You had a goal, a responsibility. 

You have failed, but the goal remains. 

A target can be missed several times, but never broken. 

It’s always still there, waiting to be tried again.

But you won’t try again. 

You dropped your responsibility for a promise.

And a promise is different.

A promise can break, and it shatters when it does.

Everyone around is cut by broken pieces that were glued together by lies.

So when you face failure again, it won’t be like this time.

When failure hits, your promise will break. 

And you’ll have nothing left but shattered pieces.


	8. The Greatest Gift

He woke up on Gyftmas morning blindfolded. That was a good sign.

Papyrus sat up in bed and reached for the fabric covering his eyes, but he felt Sans’ hands pull his arms back down. He wasn’t scared by this, but he was concerned. “Sans?”

“don’t worry about the blindfold, pap,” Sans told him a bit excitedly, “just follow my voice to your gyftmas present!”

Papyrus didn’t get why he needed to be blindfolded for that. He supposed Sans was just using the element of surprise. He carefully got out of bed and reached his arms out in front of him to make sure he wouldn’t run into anything. Papyrus couldn’t help but remember every time that his vision was cut out for other reasons. Now he was a little bit scared. 

“this way, bro.” He heard Sans leave the room. With his arms still stretched out, Papyrus stumbled his way out of the room. Hopefully Sans wouldn’t make him go down the stairs. 

To his relief, he soon felt Sans’ jacket. “ok, papyrus. you can take off the blindfold.”

Papyrus gladly untied the fabric from the back of his head. Once he held it in his hands, Sans was beaming down at him. They were outside of Papyrus’ room, but there didn’t seem to be a present nearby. 

“Um, brother? Where’s the present?”

Sans laughed. “you’re holding it!”

Papyrus looked down at the red fabric. It was long and soft. “Wait, the gift is a blindfold?”

His brother chuckled again. “it’s a scarf, bro! you’re always getting so cold, but this warm scarf will be sure to protect you.”

His eye sockets lit up. “Wowie!” He then wrapped the scarf around his neck. It was very warm like Sans had said, and the feeling of the soft fabric around his neck felt better than words could describe. It was like he was receiving an everlasting hug.

Speaking of hugs, Papyrus quickly flung his arms around Sans to thank him. “Thank you, brother,” he murmured into Sans’ jacket. After the hug Papyrus ran back into his room. “I’m getting your present!” he called over his shoulder. He knelt by his bed and grabbed the piece of paper that was under it. He then ran back to Sans and boldly handed him the gift.

Sans took the paper and examined it. It was a drawing of Sans and Papyrus in front of the gyftmas tree in Snowdin. “Since you don’t have any of my pictures from Hotland, I wanted to give you one that you could keep forever,” Papyrus explained.

His older brother’s smile grew. “i love it.” He then picked up Papyrus and hugged him closely. 

Papyrus pressed his forehead against Sans’. “Merry Gyftmas,” he whispered.

“merry gyftmas, pap.”

Papyrus skipped up to the house, enjoying the feeling of his scarf fluttering in the wind. When he knocked on the door, he jumped back when he heard a chorus of barking from inside the house. 

The front door opened to reveal a huge white dog standing in the doorway. Papyrus did his best to not be intimidated. “Is Doggo here?” he asked.

The dog nodded and yelled behind him, “Doggo! There’s a kid here to see you!” He walked away from the door when Doggo took his place. Doggo looked tired and was only wearing a pair of shorts. 

Papyrus smiled warmly to his friend and handed him the box of treats he had in his hands. “Merry Gyftmas!” he greeted.

Doggo looked startled while he took the box. “Um… thanks.” He shifted his eyes before saying, “I’ll be right back.”

Doggo closed the door and Papyrus rocked back and forth in his boots while he waited for his friend to return. A minute later, he opened the door again and handed Papyrus a small rock. 

“This is for you. It’s a pet rock. They’re a lot easier to care for than dogs.”

Papyrus held the rock carefully like it was alive. “Thank you!” he beamed. 

Doggo flinched when a ton of barking sounded from inside the house again. “I’ve got to go,” he informed. “But I’ll see you later.”

Papyrus nodded and waved. “Goodbye, buddy!” He cautiously walked back home this time with the rock cradled in his arms. 

While Papyrus walked to Waterfall, he had on his backpack to hold his many gifts. He was now confident in finding his way around the place, and had no problem navigating through the narrow caves until he came to the pink house.

“Hello?” the voice called after he knocked on the door.

“Hello!” Papyrus chirped. “It’s me again!”

“Oh, hello darling! It’s been a while!”

“Yes, I’m sorry that I couldn’t come sooner. Things have been kind of hectic.”

“That’s alright, beautiful!!” 

“Anyway,” Papyrus said, unzipping his backpack. “I have a gift for you! You should open the door and take it.”

The voice paused before she said, “Why don’t you leave the gift at the door and turn around for a moment?”

“Ok.” Papyrus didn’t get why she didn’t want to be seen, but he wasn’t going to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Especially on Gyftmas!

He placed the gift at the door and turned around. “You may take the present now!”

Papyrus heard the door squeak open before the voice gasped behind him. He then let out a surprised breath when he was hugged from behind by the stranger for a few seconds. It felt more like being hugged by a mist than a monster. After that the door quickly shut behind him. Papyrus turned back around to find that the gift was gone. 

“A microphone!” she called from behind the door. “How ever did you get one, gorgeous?”

“My brother has a few mechanical parts, so I used them to make the microphone! It doesn’t actually work though. But I thought that you would like it as a prop!”

“Oh, I love it, darling! I will cherish this forever!” She paused then added more somberly, “I’m sorry I don’t have anything for you, sweetheart.”

“That’s ok! You’ll repay me when I get to watch you on TV every day!”

The voice giggled. “You really think I’m going to be a star?”

“I know you’ll be a star in no time! I can’t wait until there’s actually something good on TV!”

“Me too, darling.”

Papyrus and Undyne trudged through the heavy rain. Luckily, Undyne was holding a red umbrella so that they both could remain mostly dry. Papyrus stayed close to her side while she went out of her way to stomp her boots into the puddles. He was beginning to realize that coats were just as important for repelling water as they were for keeping warm. 

When they passed by one of the bigger rivers, Papyrus spotted a white figure standing alone by the water’s shore. 

“Undyne, there’s Napstablook,” he whispered to her. Undyne turned her attention away from the puddle she was jumping in to see the ghost standing in the rain. 

They decided to approach the ghost, who continued to float in place by the river’s edge. The rain seemed to pour right through him while he solemnly looked into the water. 

“Hello, Napstablook!” Papyrus greeted brightly from under the umbrella. 

Napstablook finally turned away from the water to face the two monsters. He wore a small frown and his head was tilted forward gloomily. “Oh… hey… guys,” he said in a small voice.

“What are you doing?” Undyne asked.

“Um… I was watching the river… and thinking about things,” he sighed then added, “I love the rain.”

“Do you not get cold in this kind of downpour?”

“No, it feels great actually. It feels…” he looked further down in thought. “...I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Well,” Papyrus began, “Undyne and I are going to do something festive for Gyftmas. Would you like to join us?”

Napstablook looked back up at them. “But Gyftmas is almost over.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s too late to be festive!” he assured. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”

“Hmmm….” the ghost glanced back at the river for a moment. “...Oh, ok. I guess I’ll come.”

Napstablook floated beside them just outside of the umbrella. The three of them then went deeper into the stormy caves. 

Soon they got to their destination. It was the tiny cave where Undyne had painted his face for her project. Unlike the rest of waterfall, this cave was too little to be raining. Once they were inside, Undyne put the soaked umbrella aside. Papyrus then put down his backpack and pulled out a bunch of red and green light filters. 

“These are the most famous Gyftmas colors,” Papyrus explained, “So we can tape them onto all of the stone stars in here, and it will look very festive!”

Undyne punched the air with enthusiasm. “Cool!”

“And Napstablook, since you can fly, you can put the filters on the higher up stone stars.” Papyrus handed some filters and tape to the ghost.

“Oh,” Napstablook’s voice lifted a bit, “I guess I am useful after all.”

The three of them went around the small cave and taped the light filters onto all of the stone stars. Due to the cave’s size, they were done in no time. 

When all of the stone stars were shining red and green, the three of them laid on their backs to observe their masterpiece.

“Now this is the most festive place in the Underground,” Papyrus declared.

The stone stars’ new colors were luminous enough to fill the cave with a warm holiday glow. The area was still pretty dark, which only emphasized the vivid lights. They laid close to each other in the small dry cave while they listened to the distant rainstorm outside. 

“Space has never looked so festive,” Napstablook whispered beside him. Papyrus turned his head to see that the ghost’s eyes were twinkling like the lights above him. He then looked over at Undyne and noticed that she had fallen asleep. Papyrus chuckled. That was a first. 

Near the end of the day, the rain eventually died down to a light drizzle. Even though Undyne had offered to walk him home, he was fine going by himself. Papyrus lifted his yellow hood over his head so that he could walk home completely dry. 

Papyrus strolled home while jumping into small puddles along the way. He enjoyed the sound of the rain softly tapping his hood. However, his gratification was delayed when the scattered mushrooms started blinking. Their glowing lights flickered on and off. 

The skeleton shuddered. Last time that had happened, he was being chased by a shadow. Papyrus walked a little faster, now eagerly wanting to get out of Waterfall. 

When he passed by a group of echo flowers, he found that they weren’t whispering, but were talking aloud to each other. Curious, Papyrus crept to the patch of flowers. They took turns saying different lines, all belonging to the same unrecognizable voice. He was slightly aware that the mushrooms were blinking faster. 

_“Did you hate yourself?”_

_“Did you take everything that you despided, and made someone out of it?”_

_“So that you could hate him instead?”_

_“So that you could kill him instead?”_

_“Did you really hate yourself?”_

_“Well, you can’t love yourself now.”_

_“Or maybe you can.”_

_“Because emotions run deeper than you can cut.”_

_“And he may certainly hate you.”_

He looked down at his palms. For a second, he thought something was wrong with them. 

The flowers continued to repeat their lines, speaking louder and louder. Papyrus couldn’t take it anymore. The lights were flickering too quickly. He was going to be sick. Each breath he took was short and raspy, and he felt like any moment he could forget how to breathe entirely. 

His head was getting more clouded while his body continued to be filled with dreadful emotions. He had to run. That was all he knew. He had to get away.

Papyrus sprinted through Waterfall, testing the limits of his own endurance. He could only see the flickering lights and rainwater blur past in his vision. Faintly over the sound of his drumming panic, he could hear the flowers continue to echo throughout the caves. 


	9. The Storm

It was hard to know the difference between what was and wasn’t real. His life was starting to feel like just one big nightmare.

He knew that the strange voices coming from the echo flowers yesterday weren't real, but they were oddly specific. And if the talking echo flowers weren’t real, then were the blinking mushrooms real? Were the shadows on the walls real? Was none of it real? Was it all real?

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the words kept repeating over and over. _‘I am here. I am here. I-’_

“C’mon, just pick something.”

He shook himself from his thoughts. Papyrus had more pressing matters to attend to. “I’ll have a cinnamon bun, please.”

“Good god,” Undyne said overdramatically. “He has finally chosen.”

The shopkeeper smiled warmly and handed Papyrus a small brown bag from over the counter. 

“Thank you, mam,” he said while he put some gold on the counter. 

“You’re quite welcome, little one,” the shopkeeper replied. She looked at Undyne and said, “It’s been a while since you’ve been here. How have you been?”

Undyne shifted in her boots. “Good. I’m sorry that I don’t visit often, but Snowdin is just too cold for me.”

“That’s understandable,” she laughed quietly. She turned to Papyrus and asked, “Is this your first time in Snowdin?”

His soul dropped. Papyrus and Sans came to the shopkeeper all the time. He always told her how the cinnamon buns were his favorite. “Uh…” he said awkwardly. “It’s me… Papyrus.”

For a second, she didn’t seem to comprehend that. Then the shopkeeper jumped in place and gasped while she brought her paws up to her mouth. “Oh my goodness, Papyrus!” she uttered worriedly. “I can’t believe that I… I-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Papyrus shyly reassured, “It happens more often than you think. Nyeh heh…”

“No, no.” The shopkeeper put her hands over her heart. “I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. My kids have been a nightmare. You know how they are these days.” She tried to hide her concern with a smile.

“Yeah,” he did his best to smile back. He then turned around and left the shop, not really wanting to talk anymore. 

The wind was harsh and icy today. Papyrus pulled up his scarf, trying to get more warmth out of it. He walked near the edge of Snowdin and sat on a bench that faced the trees. He could hear Undyne crunch through the snow behind him.

“Papyrus!” By the time she reached him he was sitting on the bench. He sat the brown bag next to him, no longer interested in it. He didn’t want to eat now. 

“That cinnamon bun will get frozen,” Undyne said while she sat next to him.

Papyrus crossed his arms. “You can have it,” he muttered. 

Undyne paused before she took the bag. It crinkled while she opened it. Papyrus kept looking at the trees. “I’m only doing this because I won’t let a good cinnamon bun go to waste,” she explained. 

He remained silent. Papyrus knew he was being slightly rude, but he just didn’t feel like talking. 

“Um,” she said aloud while eating the pastry, “I guess that wasn’t the first time someone forgot your name, huh?”

Papyrus used his scarf to wipe a few tears away. Undyne seemed to notice and moved herself closer to hug her arm around him. He leaned into her and let out a sigh. He was a little warmer now. 

“It’s not just my name,” he said quietly. “They forget who I am completely. My teachers, my neighbors, everyone. They forget that I exist when I’m right in front of their faces. And then a few seconds later, they remember. It’s happening more and more often.”

“Well, I’ll never forget you.” Undyne said it proudly. 

“Thanks.”

\---

Undyne and Papyrus spent a few more minutes just sitting on the bench and watching the forest. She had to admit, it was beautiful. The way snow stuck to trees made them look like magical creatures. But why did it have to be so cold? Undyne shivered when another gust of wind smacked her in the face.

She was growing more worried for Papyrus. He was getting more shaken and afraid every day. Undyne was missing his usual liveliness. And now he was suddenly forgettable? How was that possible? Papyrus was one of the most unique monsters out there. He was her best friend for a reason!

Undyne frowned. She didn’t know what was happening, but it was bad. If she could only get some answers.

“GRILLBY, YOU JERK!”

Papyrus and Undyne whirled around to look from the back of the bench. A small orange flame monster was standing outside of Grillby’s. Emphasis on small. Also, he had no clothes on.

Due to the sound of his voice, Grillby peeked out from his restaurant. When he saw the other flame monster, he froze before he stepped outside to meet him. 

“Grillby! I called like ten times to let you know that I arrived in Snowdin! What the hell were you doing?”

“I was running a restaurant,” the bartender said. He was rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, seeming visibly hurt by this amount of public embarrassment. 

“I don’t care what you were doing! I’m Heats FUCKING Flamesman! No one forgets my name, or me!”

Grillby held out his hands, trying to shush the furious monster. “Ok. Can we talk about this inside?”

“Fine! Let’s take this to the bar! Like men!” The two flame monsters then went inside the restaurant. After that many of the monsters that had been watching outside were snickering to each other, while some were left shaken. 

“Woah,” Undyne breathed. “That was crazy. What a dude.”

Papyrus nodded before he gasped. “Undyne!” he was suddenly full of energy again. “That’s it! I need a memorable title!”

Even though she was lifted by his excitement, Undyne was confused. “Huh?”

“I need a title that no one can forget! That way, no one can forget me! Like Heats F-”

Undyne covered Papyrus’ mouth with her hands. “Don’t you dare say it,” she snarled. 

“What?” he smiled while she took her hands away. “I was just going to say Flamesman.”

After much thoughtful brainstorming, the two came up with a title for Papyrus to try. They ran to the nearest monster, a grey bear standing beside Grillby’s. 

“Hello!” Papyrus greeted the monster boldy. The bear looked down at the two and smiled. “Allow me to introduce myself!” He put his hand on his chest. “I am Papyrus the Extraordinary!”

“From the fifth dimension!” Undyne blurted from beside him. 

Papyrus gave her a perplexed look. “The fifth dimension?”

Undyne shrugged. “I think it adds something.”

The bear snorted to himself and walked away, giggling noisily. Papyrus huffed and stomped his foot. “I think we added too much.”

“Yes,” Undyne agreed. “Let’s start from scratch. How about… the Good Papyrus?”

He narrowed his eye sockets. “More like the Good Enough Papyrus.”

“Well, then we move up from there! So after good, the next step up would be…” Undyne thought for a moment before she had it. “What about the Great Papyrus?”

Papyrus still looked hesitant. “I’m not sure…”

“Oh, come on! The Great Papyrus! It sounds perfect! C’mon!” She grabbed his hand and dragged him along. “Let’s try it out!”

They both ran to a black wolf that was hanging out by the Gyftmas tree. “Attention!” she called to the wolf. The monster gave them a confused glance. “This is the Great Papyrus!” 

The wolf grinned at the two panting monsters. “That’s a very cool name.”

Papyrus, who had been looking a bit scared, suddenly straightened up eagerly. “It is?”

The wolf nodded. “The Great Papyrus. Has a nice ring to it.”

“It does!” Undyne agreed. With that, the two vigorously began to run through the rest of Snowdin together, celebrating their new victory. 

They were overjoyed when they saw Doggo walking through the trees nearby. Papyrus and Undyne ran to him excitedly. 

“Doggo! Doggo!” Undyne called before they reached him. The dog turned to face them with a slightly concerned face. 

“Guess his name!” she panted. 

Doggo narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“What’s my name?” Papyrus squeaked. “Guess my name!”

He hesitated. “Is this a trick question?”

“No!” Undyne shouted. “Just say it! What’s his name?”

“...Papyrus.”

“Wrong!” she bellowed. “It’s the Great Papyrus now!” The two of them cheered and high-fived while Doggo growled to himself.

  
“Before you meet him, you should probably know something.”

“Wh-What?”

“A few months ago he had an accident that left him in a coma, and now he can’t remember anything that happened in his life before then. So just keep that in mind.”

“...Did that happen when the w-world went dark?”

Before Undyne could answer, Papyrus showed up with Doggo and Napstablook at his side. Both Papyrus and Doggo were carrying heaps of firewood in their arms. Today the five of them had planned to spend the evening together near the edge of the woods in Snowdin. They were even having a campfire, which apparently was the only thing Papyrus left out when he asked Sans if he could go. 

For once, Alphys wasn’t in her lab coat. She was wearing a winter coat, but was still slightly shivering in Snowdin’s freezing temperatures. Undyne really wanted Alphys to meet Papyrus, so when she heard Doggo’s idea about the campfire, she declared that she would bring a new friend too. Excited by the idea of an entire friend group, Papyrus insisted that she should ask Napstablook to come as well. She was surprised when the ghost agreed, looking almost uplifted by the invitation. 

Papyrus’ eye sockets lit up when he saw Alphys. “Hello!” he greeted cheerfully. “I am the Great Papyrus! It is so nice to meet you!”

“H-Hello,” she shivered. “I-I’m Alphys.” Undyne couldn’t help but notice that Alphys was eyeing the skeleton suspiciously, as if she was trying to figure out something based on his appearance.

“Doggo,” the dog quickly stated his name. His eyes were shifting at Alphys like he was also noticing the way she was looking at Papyrus. 

Alphys quickly shot her gaze to the forest, her cheeks blushing with sudden embrasement. Doggo then eyed Undyne questionably for a few seconds. Undyne replied to his silent question with a shrug. 

Papyrus didn’t seem to notice what had just happened; he was busy shifting the firewood around in his arms. Napstablook was also busy looking at the ground and gaining the self confidence to state his own name. 

“I’m… Napstablook…” the ghost finally said. 

Alphys did her best to act normal and smiled at the group before her. “It’s a pl-pleasure to m-meet you guys.”

A gust of freezing wind caused Undyne to shudder. She didn’t understand how Doggo was just wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Then again, he had a bunch of fur to protect himself. Also Napstablook never wore anything and didn’t look bothered by the cold at all. 

When they found a decent sized clearing in the forest, they set up the campfire there. There were even a couple of logs around, which they pushed to lay around the pile of firewood. After that Doggo used a match he had to light the fire. The flames blazed to life, quickly consuming the firewood. Undyne let out a relieved sigh when she felt the fire’s warmth. 

Papyrus sat on one of the logs and watched the fire with interest. The warm orange glow lit up the darker clearing. Nearby trees casted shadows on the snow. Undyne sat next to Papyrus on the log, while Alphys and Napstablook sat on the log next to them. Doggo walked over and stood on a tree stump that was a bit behind the fire in the center of the clearing. 

“When monsters sit around a campfire like this,” Doggo said from the stump, “They usually tell scary stories.”

“That sounds fun!” Undyne asserted. Papyrus nodded with agreement. 

“I’ve been working on something like that…” Napstablook muttered. 

“That’s wonderful, Napstablook!” Papyrus exclaimed. “I can’t wait to hear it!”

“I also have a scary story!” Undyne announced. She didn’t, but she could probably come up with one real quick. 

“Well since I’m up here, I will tell my story first.” Doggo then straightened his posture to boldly narrate his story to the crowd. 

“Tonight, the world is still. There are no monsters, no creatures to make a sound. There is no wind, leaving the forest to be motionless. Nothing can be seen. Nothing can be heard. Tonight, the world is still.”

Doggo paused to fill the mood with an eerie pause. He then continued, “I sit on a log, much like the ones here now. I can’t see anything, because nothing is moving. For a moment, I am at peace. But then it _happens_.”

Everyone held their breaths. 

“A single hand strokes my head. I was pet! Pet by something that wasn’t moving!”

“Ah!” Papyrus yelped. Undyne looked at him and saw that he was more excited than scared.

She scoffed and crossed her arms. “Really, Doggo? You were pet? That’s scary to you?”

Doggo huffed. “It would be much more scary to you if you were blind like me.”

“You’re not blind,” she retorted. “You are partially blind. And guess what?” She pointed to her eye patch. “So am I!”

“Oh, please. You can still see everything. You could never understand what I go through.”

“Yeah?” Undyne stood up from the log. “Then watch _this!”_ She put her hand over her eye, blinding herself. “Ooooo!” she said sarcastically. “So scary!”

“Guys, could you please stop fighting?” Papyrus asked. Undyne put her hand down and saw his worried face. 

She sat back down next to Papyrus and sighed. “Great story, Doggo,” she murmured. 

“Thanks.” Doggo then walked over to plop down on a lone log. 

Papyrus tried to cut the sour mood with an eager smile. “Napstablook, why don’t you go?”

The ghost flinched. “N-Now?”

Papyrus nodded. “Didn’t you say you had a story?”

Napstablook lowered his head. “Yeah, but it’s not any good…”

“I’m sure it’s very spooky!”

“Well,” he slowly left the log to float up to the tree stump, “Ok. Here goes nothing, I guess.”

Napstablook surveyed the small crowd before he recited his story with a gloomy voice. 

“Dust is falling, falling, falling.

I am dying, dying, dying.

My soul, my body, all blown away by the wind.

In this moment, I don’t want to be alone.

But all of my friends are dead.

As my life drifts away, I have to wonder:

Did it mean anything in the first place?”

For a few seconds, everyone was silent. Nothing could be heard but the fire’s crackle. 

“Wowie,” Papyrus finally said. “I’m not sure how I feel right now.”

“That wasn’t really scary,” Doggo huffed. 

“Oh, and your story was?” Undyne mocked. 

Napstablook lowered his head. “No, Doggo’s right. I’m sorry for that.” He then floated back down to sit next to Alphys.

“It was spooky… I think.” Papyrus was frowning to himself. 

“I-I thought it was rather good…” Alphys muttered to the ghost. Napstablook gave her a tiny lift of the mouth that could resemble a smile.

“My turn!” Undyne bolted up to the tree stump. She faced her audience with a thrilled grin. “Alright, picture this! There’s a big, terrifying, fire breathing human!”

“Pretty sure humans don’t breathe fire,” Doggo muttered.

“Hey!” she shot him a glare. “No interrupting!” She then continued her story. “So, like I said, the human was very scary! But then! BAM!” Undyne stomped her foot onto the stump. “I strike the human down with my powerful spear! The human lets out a final roar, and then is defeated by me!” She proudly looked over the audience, inspecting their reactions. 

“Wowie!” Papyrus cheered. “Good job Undyne!”

“You’ve got to be-” Doggo stopped mid-sentence when Papyrus gave him a concerned look. “...Um, I liked your enthusiasm, Undyne,” he mumbled. 

“Why, thank you!” she teasingly bowed before she left the tree stump. 

When Undyne sat down, she looked over at Alphys eagerly. “Do you have a story to tell?” she asked.

Alphys shuddered, looking terrified from the thought of that alone. “N-No,” she said quickly.

“That’s alright!” Papyrus assured. “I think I have a decent story!” He got up and skipped to the tree stump. Undyne smiled at the sight of him excitedly standing on the mini stage before his audience. He then vigorously began his story, “It was a dark and cold day. I was walking alone through Waterfall. Everything was normal at first, but then I saw a shadow!”

“A shadow?” Doggo interrupted. Undyne was annoyed with him at first, but then she saw that his face looked worried or even scared. Was Papyrus’ story really that scary?

Papyrus didn’t seem bothered by Doggo’s question. “Yes, a shadow.”

“Could you describe the shadow?” His voice was hinted with concern. 

“Oh, yeah.” Papyrus thought for a moment. “It was long, thin, and it towered in the cave from the ground to the ceiling!”

“So like the shadow that’s behind you right now.”

Only then did Undyne understand Doggo. With the fire in front of him, Papyrus was casting a shapeless towering shadow that stretched across the snow all the way to the nearest tree directly behind him. It grew on the tree and stood before them as a mysterious and slightly horrifying figure. Undyne had no idea how she didn’t notice it before. 

Papyrus turned around and saw the shadow he was casting. “Yes,” he said casually. “Like that.” He turned back to face the audience, but he suddenly gasped with terror and quickly turned around again to look at the shadow. “O-Ok.” His voice was trembling as he backed off of the stump. “We need t-to go.”

Undyne quickly ran to his side and stopped him from moving backwards any further. “Papyrus, watch out,” she said anxiously. “You’re gonna run into the fire.”

The skeleton turned from the shadow and looked into the nearby fire. His eye sockets looked dull and unfocused. He reached up a hand and moved it as if he was going to touch the flame. 

Undyne slapped his hand away. “Papyrus!” She couldn’t hide her fear if she wanted to. She grabbed onto his shoulders and looked into his lifeless face. “What’s happening?”

Papyrus spoke in a weak voice that was barely above a whisper, “Do you see it?” His eye sockets then closed and he went limp, falling back into the snow. 

“Papyrus?” Undyne kneeled over his listless body and tried to gently shake him awake. He was ice cold to the touch, and he looked like he could turn to dust any second. Tears formed in her eye. “Papyrus!”

“Wh-What’s going o-on?” Alphys stuttered. Everyone was with Undyne now, all looking down at Papyrus in horror. 

“I-I don’t know.” Undyne did her best to hold back her crying. “I don’t kn-know!”

“Undyne, we gotta get out of here,” Doggo insisted. The area had grown much darker, indicating that a storm was coming. The fire beside them was shrinking unnaturally fast, and soon it turned into nothing but a puff of smoke. The wind grew more harsh and frigid, causing even Doggo and Napstablook to be bothered by it. Big snowflakes were swiftly falling to the ground. The worst part was that far off in the distance, creeping from the deeper part of the forest, a black fog was approaching. 

“Shit,” Undyne cursed under her breath. She lifted Papyrus’ limp body from the snow and cradled him securely in her arms. She walked briskly through the woods, with everyone else following behind. 

As they went along, the storm grew stronger. The snow was falling heavily now, obscuring most of her vision. It was so cold that Undyne’s entire body felt numb. Her soul was quickly filling with feelings of fear and dread. Each step forward was becoming more difficult, but the fog was only getting closer. She couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. All she could know was that darkness was taking over.

Undyne stopped in her tracks when a giant shadow suddenly blocked her path. It loomed over the group of young monsters, growing from the ground into the air like some kind of tree. 

She tried going to the left, hoping to find more luck in that direction. More shadows swept across the snow, surrounding them wherever they went. 

Once again, Undyne went still when she heard a scream. She turned around to see that a shadow had somehow grabbed Alphys’ leg, holding her in place. Alphys wailed in terror while she tried to break free. The rest of them tried to hold her and get her away, but it was no use. 

The fog had reached them by now. No matter where Undyne looked, nothing could be seen through the black fog other than her friends. She couldn’t even see a single tree. They were trapped in darkness. 

Alphys then spoke, cutting through the noise of the harsh wind. “W-We n-need light,” she whimpered. 

Undyne didn’t really understand what that meant, but she knew that Alphys was right. She suddenly jolted from an idea. “Doggo!” she did her best to sound forceful through the intense storm around them. “Light your match!”

It was too dark to see much of a reaction on Doggo’s face. The dog pulled out his match and lit it hastily. 

Right when the tiny flame sparked to life, the darkness around them hissed. The fog shrunk from the flame, packing together more tightly while it squirmed from the group. The shadows also scattered away, but crept to join the building fog. The monsters huddled around Doggo, seeking protection from the small light. Undyne was awed by how brightly it shone through the darkness.

Soon the darkness was no longer surrounding them, but was towering before them instead as one giant figure. It was a mass of swirling fog and shadows, a black shapeless creature. The group backed away slowly, but the figure followed, not daring to get any closer but keeping the same distance. When a more frigid gust of wind blew, the flame flickered for a few seconds, but remained burning. Undyne could only imagine what would happen if Doggo’s match suddenly went out. 

Undyne looked down when she heard faint whimpering. Papyrus still looked passed out, but he was slightly struggling in her arms. His face was grimacing, like he was fighting a battle within himself. Undyne then realized that she could feel Papyrus’ soul again, which was full of conflicting emotions.

Papyrus’ struggling grew more intense, and soon he was weeping loud enough for everyone to hear. Undyne then looked up and saw that the shadow was slowly backing away. It crept past the nearby trees, going deeper back into the forest. It stopped in place a good distance from the group. 

Undyne gasped when Papyrus suddenly opened his eye sockets. His weeping diminished, but frozen tear tracks stained his face. Then with a forceful jolt of his body, Papyrus pushed himself out of Undyne’s arms. He landed in the snow on his knees, but got up to stand quickly. 

The other monsters were still, not sure what to do. Papyrus looked back at them and croaked, “Don’t move.” He then bravely walked through the snowfall towards the waiting dark creature. 

Undyne tried running after him, but instead she gasped when her soul turned blue. She growled to herself, trying to move while the others stood by her hesitantly. Papyrus kept walking forward.

He stopped moving when he was a few feet away from the living storm. He boldly stood before the towering fog and shadows. “I’m right here!” he shouted in a strained voice. “Give me your worst! Do whatever you want with me, I can take it!”

Undyne watched in horror when the figure advanced to Papyrus, who was then engulfed by the darkness. She was so scared for him that she lost her voice. 

Right when Papyrus was buried by the fog, Doggo ran from the group and to the storm. As he ran, the fog was fading away and the shadows were gone. By the time he reached the skeleton, the only thing left was a grey mist. Undyne charged after him once she stopped gaping with shock and realized that the hold on her soul was gone. Napstablook and Alphys followed. 

When she reached them, Doggo had put away his match and was standing over Papyrus looking both worried and angry. Papyrus was kneeling in the snow while shivering and burying his face into his hands. 

“What the hell was that, Papyrus?” Doggo growled over him. “You need to tell us what’s going on, right now!”

“Shh, Doggo,” Undyne hushed. She could hear the cries that Papyrus was choking on. She kneeled down with the trembling skeleton and hugged him firmly, resting his head on her shoulder. Papyrus hugged her tightly back. 

Papyrus’ sobbing turned more intense but he was still able to say just loud enough for everyone to hear, “I-I’m sorry.”


	10. It's Not Raining

“i understand, but i can’t just leave him here. not with the state he’s in.”

Papyrus was awake now, but he pretended to still be sleeping, keeping his eye sockets shut. He could hear Sans pace around his room while he quietly talked into the phone. 

“yes. they say it was the fog that attacked them. i don’t know what it means either.”

Sans was silent for a while before he asked, “how bad is it?” He sighed when he heard the response. “ok. i’ll get there as soon as i can. but i’m only doing this because it’s an emergency.”

He was surprised to hear Sans’ response. Was he about to be left home alone? Papyrus was rarely left by himself. Sans’ work schedule had always been made to where he was only on sentry duty while Papyrus was at school. And what kind of emergency needed a Snowdin sentry?

Papyrus still felt sick. His bones were so cold they were stinging. His head was still pounding, and his soul felt numb. It had only been a few hours since the storm. Since Papyrus had attacked his friends. 

Undyne and Doggo were the ones who brought Papyrus back home. They told Sans that they were attacked by the fog again, and Papyrus was so shaken he couldn’t say anything. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to explain that he was the one responsible for all of this. He controlled the fog. He was the one full of darkness. His shadows had trapped his friends. Papyrus didn’t understand any of it, but he knew he was a threat to everyone’s safety. He just wished that he would have understood that sooner.

He opened his eyes when he felt Sans nudge his shoulder. His older brother looked down at him with the most concerned looking smile. “hey bro,” he spoke gently. “how are you feeling?”

Papyrus didn’t even try to lie this time. Lying wasn’t keeping anyone safe anymore. “Horrible,” he croaked. 

Sans placed his hand on his brother’s forehead. The warmth of his hand felt odd against Papyrus’ constantly frozen body. “is there anything you need?” His face looked as pained as Papyrus felt. 

He shook his head. There was nothing that could possibly help him now.

“ok. well, this is the last thing i want to do, but i have to leave for the day.”

The whole day? What could Sans possibly be doing?

“i need you to promise me that you’ll stay in bed for the whole time i’m gone. i still don’t know what exactly happened out there, but you are very sick.”

Not really having a choice, Papyrus nodded. “I promise.” 

Sans then let out an agonized breath while he retucked Papyrus into the blankets, clearly trying to make any excuse to stay with him longer. He then looked searchingly into Papyrus’ eye sockets and asked, “is there something you want to tell me?”

The way he asked it made it sound like he knew Papyrus was hiding something from him. At that moment, he truly did want to tell Sans everything. But he didn’t even know where to start. The more that happened, the more he realized that he didn’t know anything. And Sans was about to leave. Now just wasn’t the time to try to find the right words. Maybe he would know what to say by the time Sans came home. “No,” he finally replied. 

Sans clearly disliked his answer, but he didn’t push any further. Instead he gave Papyrus a drawn out hug before he headed to his bedroom door. “i’ll be back before you know it.”

Papyrus did his best to smile. “Love you, brother.”

Sans opened the door and smiled back. “love you, pap.” The door clicked shut and Papyrus was left alone in his room. 

He listened while Sans hustled throughout the house before he left out the front door. The house felt entirely different without his brother there. Even though Sans was a mostly quiet monster, the house’s silence now felt haunting. The loneliness didn’t help what Papyrus was feeling. He was honestly scared. Everytime he closed his eyes, he was reminded of the darkness and everything that came with it. He was exhausted from fighting with himself. The storm had been a fight for his life in order to not allow the darkness to completely take over. He was terrified by the idea of ever having to go through that again. And the darkness was so unpredictable that he felt like he could trust any other monster before he trusted himself. He could still hear the thoughts that spoke to him inside of his own head. 

_‘I am here. I am here. I am-’_

“I get it!” Papyrus sat up in bed and covered his eye sockets with his hands. He was sick of listening to himself. He was sick of what he was doing. He was sick of who he was. 

“I’m sick of myself.” He spat out the words, truly meaning them. “Everything I do, everything I say. It’s all been for my sake. I hate myself.” Even though he was surprised to say the sentence aloud, he knew he had already been saying it deep down. _“I hate myself.”_

“Really? I’m rather fond of you.”

Papyrus looked up from his hands to see Demon sitting at the end of his bed. The skeleton sighed and hung his legs over the edge of his bed to face away from him. “If you’re looking for fear, go somewhere else,” he muttered while looking at the floor. “I’m sick of being scared.”

“I’m not looking for fear, I’ll have you know.” He sounded a bit insulted. “I was actually looking for a great friend. And it looks like I’ve found one!”

Papyrus snorted. “I appreciate your kindness. But you really can’t do anything to make me feel better. All I am is a threat to everyone else.”

“Are you talking about the storm?”

He turned his head to Demon. The monster was still wearing his small cheerful smile. “You know about the storm?”

“Know about it? I felt it happen!”

Papyrus tilted his head. “Felt it happen?”

“Exactly. When your group encountered the storm, you guys produced so much fear I felt it as clear as day! You know how rare it is for me to feel an event that I wasn’t even near?”

“So you know what happened?”

“I believe so. You were attacked by a form of darkness, and had to fight it off.”

He shook his head. “No. I wasn’t attacked. I attacked everyone, including myself. Everything that happened, I controlled.” Papyrus looked at his hands. “The darkness, the fog, I’ve controlled it all. I could have killed them. I have every right to hate myself.”

“But that’s not what I felt. The fear I felt was the kind of panic someone feels when they’re attacked. You didn’t harm your friends, because you fought the darkness off. Like a hero!”

Papyrus looked back at Demon. “Don’t call me a hero. I know what I did. I know who I am.”

“Do you?”

He paused for a second, then ironically smiled. “I guess I don’t know who I am. If I did, I would know what’s going on.”

The words were still echoing in the back of his mind. _‘I am here.’_

“I _am_ here,” Papyrus acknowledged. “But I don’t know who I _am_.” He looked at the floor, expecting to see his shadow. But there was nothing there. “Isn’t that funny?”

“Well, look who’s the scary one now! You’re creeping me out!”

Papyrus barely heard Demon’s words. He was too busy running an idea over in his head. “If I can figure out who I am, then I can stop myself. Does that make any sense?”

Demon laughed. “Not at all. But it sounds fun! Like a quest of self discovery!”

Papyrus nodded. He had made up his mind. The longer he didn’t know about his darkness, the more his loved ones were in danger. “I need to talk to Undyne.”

Demon was kind enough to help Papyrus teleport to Waterfall. After that however, Demon explained that he had work to do elsewhere. “I hope you figure out who you are,” he had said before he teleported away. “And just so you know, I believe that you’re a great monster, no matter what happens. I hope you can believe it too.”

The skeleton nodded. “Thank you. Thanks for everything.”

“Alright,” Demon chuckled, “Let’s not make this sound like it’s goodbye forever. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” Then with an assuring nod, his horns glowed brighter and he soon disappeared from sight.

Now alone in Waterfall, Papyrus felt slightly fearful again. He took a deep breath, doing his best to calm himself. He tried to push the darkness he felt constantly away, focusing on Sans’ words instead. _‘you’re okay. you’re okay…’_

“I’m okay,” he whispered aloud. “I just have to believe it.” He zipped up his yellow coat and pulled up his red scarf, hoping to warm his frozen body. Papyrus then walked in the direction of Undyne’s school. 

The stone stars twinkled up ahead, encouraging him on. It was beginning to drizzle, but Papyrus kept his hood off, enjoying the feeling of fresh water rain down on his face. Maybe he did understand Napstablook’s love for rain afterall. 

Before he got to Undyne’s school, he found her and Aaron splashing through puddles under an umbrella. Papyrus realized that it was raining pretty hard now, but he still appreciated the way it felt on his head.

When Undyne saw him, she made a face. He wasn’t even sure how to describe it. She looked excited at first, but then confused. When Papyrus got closer, she looked like she was straining to hold a smile. 

“Hey!” Undyne said from under the umbrella. “You’re getting soaked!”

Papyrus just nodded with agreement before he said, “Undyne, we need to talk.”

Aaron gave Papyrus a puzzled look and turned to Undyne. “You know this skeleton?”

Papyrus sighed. Figures Aaron would forget him too. 

“Yeah, of course! It’s uh-” Undyne stopped herself mid sentence. “Um… what did you want to talk about?”

His entire soul felt like it dropped out of his body. Papyrus couldn’t stop the sudden rush of anger and dread from boiling over. “Are you kidding me?” he spat. “You don’t remember me either?”

“I do!” She tried to sound convincing. “I just… just…”

He couldn’t listen to it anymore. Papyrus sprinted away from the two monsters, tearing up as he ran down the dark caves. 

“Wait!” He heard Undyne call from behind. “Wait, please!”

He couldn’t believe it. She had forgotten. After she promised not to. His best friend forgot who he was. Everyone forgot him, it was just inevitable. 

Papyrus was forgettable.

His vision was blurred with too many tears to see that he was running into a wall. Once he realized he was about to make an impact, it was too late. He instinctively closed his eye sockets and braced for…

Papyrus opened his eyes to find that he was still running. He stopped and looked behind him to find that he had ran right through the wall like a ghost. He was in a different part of Waterfall now, one he didn’t recognize. It was darker than anywhere else, with only a trace amount of stone stars and scattered plants to glow in the large caves. As far as Papyrus could tell, he was alone. Everywhere he looked was deserted. There were no creatures to make a single sound. The only thing that could be heard was the pounding rain.

He knelt over and put his hands on his knees. He felt exhausted, but at the same time he was seething with energy. Dark emotions surged through his soul. He hated it. He hated all of it.

Papyrus couldn’t think straight. He was too angry. He didn’t care if being able to run through a wall didn’t make sense. None of this made sense anyway. Everything that happened to him was illogical. He tried so hard to fight the darkness off, to keep everyone safe, to believe that he was good deep down. 

But what was the point? In the end he would still be in unbearable pain. He would still be a danger to everyone. He would still be forgettable. 

“It doesn’t matter,” he growled. “It doesn’t matter!” He marched forward, stomping violently through the large puddles. Rain streamed down his face, dampening the scarf beneath his coat. He still didn’t dare put on his hood. Getting soaked slightly distracted him from the torture he was enduring inside. 

The scattered lights flickered on and off. Papyrus wasn’t surprised. He knew what was coming. Shadows grew across the floor, racing by his side as he made his way along. Fog seeped it’s way through the darkness, not really going anywhere in particular. 

The words were loud and clear, repeating for eternity. _‘I am here’._

“I know,” Papyrus snarled. “You won’t shut up about it.”

He stopped and jerked in place when his repeating thoughts suddenly spoke back to him. _‘So you believe me. You accept that I am here.’_

Papyrus hesitated. Had he not accepted it in the past? He guessed he didn’t, but he wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. He still didn’t get what it all meant in the first place. He decided to respond with the answer he was feeling the most. “Yes, I do.”

And just like that, he was laying on the ground, screaming. Squirming. Crying. Pleading for help. But there was no one to hear a sound. Papyrus’ soul was being crushed. He was being torn apart, piece by piece. He could feel the darkness surging through him, eating away every last feeling and emotion that wasn’t torturing him. He felt like he was being cut into bits. Like he was being stabbed everywhere at once. He was somber, frantic, livid. 

He continued to squirm on the hard stone ground, wishing he could just die or pass out so that he didn’t have to feel anything anymore. 

When he was approached by a dark creature, the pain eased away. Papyrus blinked through the tears and rainwater to find a hooded figure standing above him. They were as dark as the area around them, so Papyrus had no idea who it was. 

Even though he was relieved by the decreasing pain, Papyrus was terrified by the figure. He wasn’t even sure why. 

Soon the instincts were kicking him too hard to not listen. He got up and ran away from the hooded creature. He felt much more heavy now from the water that had soaked all of his clothes. Papyrus then realized that the rain wasn’t falling anymore, but was instead going in reverse. Thousands of water droplets rose from the ground and flew to the ceiling. The scattered lights continued to flicker, getting darker with every passing minute. His head was starting to get muggy. 

_‘No.’_ His thoughts spoke to him as he began to slow down. _‘Get away. Run!’_

But Papyrus couldn’t run. He felt heavier every second. He was also feeling better. The pain was leaking away, and pleasant emotions were returning to his soul. Papyrus even felt his genuine smile return. 

He slowly stumbled along, enjoying the feeling of having agony taken away. He couldn’t help but feel that someone was right behind him, so he stopped and drowsily turned around to see who it was. 

The hooded figure was standing before him, cloaked arms reaching out.

“Oh,” he moaned out sluggishly. He then felt himself fall forward before everything turned into nothing. 

Rain. Droplets of water. Never falling. Always rising. Going up, up, up.

Droplets rose from the ground and hit him in the face. Where was it going? When would it fall?

It doesn’t rain here.

Lights. Glowing from the mushrooms. Twinkling from the stone stars. Never shining. Always flickering. Going on and off, on and off.

He could barely see. It was too dark. When was it not too dark?

There is no light here.

Shadows. Spreading through the ground. Towering on the walls. Crawling across the ceiling. 

They were going to take him. He didn’t want to go.

But who has a choice?

Determination. Fueling him from inside. Making him ready. Ready for what? He doesn’t know.

He would be gone soon. 

No. He will always be there. Deep down at least. But he will be… different.

Very different.

_Or maybe not so different at all._


	11. Don't Forget

Undyne cursed at herself. She stomped on the ground, feeling furious. What kind of monster forgot their best friend?

She paced back and forth through the narrow cave. She was chasing him through here, but now he was gone. Undyne didn’t understand. 

She closed her eye, trying to concentrate. “I know him,” she said aloud, attempting to convince herself. “I know him! Why can’t I remember?”

“Um, Undyne?” Aaron called from the entrance of the tiny cave. He was standing under the umbrella, watching Undyne pace back and forth in one of Waterfall’s small tunnels. “This cave is a dead end. He probably ran somewhere else.”

Undyne knew that wasn’t true. She saw him run in here. The monster growled to herself. As time went on, she was forgetting more and more. She knew that she could usually feel him with her soul, but now it just felt empty and powerless. It was as if he vanished from this world. He was gone, erased from existence and memory. 

“I promised!” she hollered, kicking the ground in anger, “I promised I wouldn’t forget! Why is it so hard to remember?

Aaron cautiously approached the furious monster. “I think you need to go home,” he advised in a worried voice.

Undyne shook her head fiercely. “I can’t. I have to remember. He needs me.”

“Maybe you would remember better if you were home, and not in this dark cold cave.”

“Dark…” she whispered. That word meant something to her. It was a word full of memories. She jumped at the realization. “When the world went dark!” Undyne grabbed Aaron’s shoulders and shook him excitedly. “He had something to do with when the world went dark! I know it! I can feel it in my soul!”

“Oh, yay,” Aaron said cautiously. He probably thought that Undyne was going crazy. But at this point, she didn’t care. 

Undyne could feel another memory come back to her. 

_‘Before you meet him, you should probably know something.’_

_‘Wh-What?’_

_‘A few months ago he had an accident that left him in a coma, and now he can’t remember anything that happened in his life before then. So just keep that in mind.’_

_‘...Did that happen when the w-world went dark?’_

“Yes!” She responded to her memory eagerly. “Yes, it did! I just know it!”

Aaron opened his mouth to speak, but Undyne interrupted him. “I must go home at once! There is a friend I need to call over!”

“Oh, good,” he sighed. He looked relieved in Undyne’s decision. 

But there was no time to walk home with Aaron. She had to get home as soon as possible. “You can keep the umbrella,” she told him hastily. “I’ll see you at school on Monday!” Without another word, she sprinted out of the cave and out into the rain. 

She sprinted through Waterfall, flying past the glowing plants and leaping high over entire creeks. The pouring rain blurred by in her vision. Undyne was running so fast that it looked like some of the stone stars were flickering. 

When she got to her house, she threw open the door and barged inside. “Gerson! I demand to have Alphys come to this house at once!”

Gerson looked up from his book in both amusement and surprise. “Yes, mam!”

Alphys clenched her hands, squinting her eyes in concentration. She then sighed and shook her head. “I c-can’t remember him either.” She looked up at Undyne. “I don’t understand wh-what any of this m-means.”

Undyne was sitting on her bed with Alphys close at her side. “I don’t either,” she admitted, “But I did remember something.” She took a deep breath and persuaded herself to just say it. “In my soul, I can’t help but feel that he had something to do with when the world went dark. It’s like I have a memory of it happening, even though I can’t fully remember it. But I know it’s there.” She looked into Alphys’ eyes. “And I think it also had to do with the lab.”

Alphys hesitated. “B-But you can’t be sure.”

“No, I can’t. But I’m not sure about anything. And this is what I’m most sure about.”

When Alphys paused again Undyne asked, “Do you think I’m right?”

Before Alphys spoke she looked unsure and indecisive. Finally she sighed and said, “If you’re r-right, then I probably have information you need to know. I want to be honest with you because I trust you more than anyone. But if you hate me after hearing this, I c-completely understand.”

“I could never hate you.” Undyne wrapped her arm around the monster reassuringly.

Alphys smiled with appreciation from the comfort. “W-Well to be honest, I lied to you when I said that I didn’t work with Sans often. S-Sans and I both started working at the lab at a very young age, and we were p-paired together to work on a project that took up most of our lives. We were doing experiments with a substance called determination. Sans and I were trying to see if injecting enough of this substance into fallen monsters would help them live on after it was technically too late. We also had theories that if we could fully control determination, it c-could help us break down the barrier. Back then, we r-really did think that we were on our way to saving monsterkind.” 

She let out a long shivering breath before she continued, “But the experiments f-failed. The monsters woke up, but they weren’t the same. The substance was too much for them to handle, and they became these terrifying creatures that were being t-tortured by the excess amount of determination. We couldn’t get rid of them back then, and I believe now they are locked in a part of the l-lab that no one can access. Shortly after the experiments failed, Sans told me that he was leaving. He couldn’t explain why, but he promised that he would keep everything between us a secret. That same day, the world went dark.”

Alphys sighed. “For the longest time, I thought that I only forgot a small amount of memories, just like everyone else did. But recently I’ve r-realized that’s not the case. When the world went dark, someone disappeared. Someone was wiped from everyone’s m-memory. Someone I knew well. I know this for sure now, because it felt the same way it does now. Now that _h-he’s_ gone too, it feels the exact same way as before. D-Does that make sense?”

“I believe so. It makes sense with what I’m feeling. And I’m sorry for everything that happened, that must have been hard for you.”

“Thanks,” Alphys said softly. “Anyway, even though I can’t remember what h-happened or who disappeared when the world went dark, maybe Sans can.”

“Sans.” Undyne repeated the name out loud. How did she know him again?

She remembered right when a sudden feeling took over her soul. Dread and frigidness surged through her body. Undyne gasped from the feeling. An unbearable pain was attacking her heart, bringing hundreds of memories back with it. She heaved with agony while she clenched her pounding chest. 

“U-Undyne?” Alphys worriedly, grabbing her shoulders from behind. “Wh-What’s wrong?”

Even though the pain was growing, she managed to smile through it. “He’s back,” she panted. “I remember.”

\---

_“Beware, young one. He is here. I may not be able to help you next time.”_

He woke up in his bed like nothing had happened. Papyrus sat up and examined his body. From what he could tell, he looked fine. He was honestly surprised. Papyrus had thought he died. 

“Was that a nightmare?” he asked aloud. There was no one to answer. But he already knew the answer anyway. That was way too real and painful to be a dream. 

Papyrus let out a quavering breath and brought up his knees to hug them. He didn’t know what was happening, but it was bad. Maybe he had been wrong all this time. Maybe the nightmares and illusions were real. 

The skeleton yelped when the light in his room suddenly went out. The room was now incredibly dark. Shivering with both cold and fear, Papyrus got out of bed and carefully walked through the darkness to the light switch. He flipped it on and off, but it did nothing. The bulb must have burned out. 

Desperately wanting to get out of darkness, Papyrus opened his bedroom door. He was upset to find that the rest of the house was dark as well. All of the lights were off, and the shades were covering all of the windows. He crept to a lightswitch in the hall, but it didn’t work either. The power must have gone out. 

Or at least he thought that was what happened before he saw that there was light peeking out from under Sans’ door. Papyrus knew that he was generally not allowed in his brother’s room, but right now it couldn’t hurt to sit in there until the rest of the power came on. The more he was standing in the dark, the more his dread was growing. 

Papyrus couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty while he slowly walked up to Sans’ bedroom door. However, the guilt was quickly washed away by relief when he opened the door and was met with a warm light that shone brightly from Sans’ lamp. 

Sans’ room was a mess, probably because he was always too busy to take care of it. Not wanting to mess with his stuff, Papyrus decided to sit by the lamp on the floor, enjoying the light that basked down on him. 

He stared at the shadow he was casting on the floor. It was long and shapeless, similar to some of the shadows that haunted him. He jerked back against the wall when the shadow moved on its own, reaching out a long slender arm to Sans’ bed. Papyrus watched in horror while the shadow continued to move, reaching its hand far underneath the bed. It then moved back, dragging something out with it. When the shadow returned to its original still position, Papyrus realized that it had dragged out a crumpled piece of paper from under the bed. 

Curious, Papyrus got up and picked up the paper. He did his best to smooth it out before he looked to see what it was. 

It was an older drawing of three happy figures with the words written, ‘don’t forget’. 

Right when he saw the picture, he dropped it. The paper quickly fell to the floor.

Papyrus tried to cover his eye sockets while visions flashed before them. He was standing in the lab. Cold metal hallways stretched everywhere, trapping him forever. He clenched his trembling hands, trying to calm his anxiety. Someone wouldn’t stop hurting him.

He had drawn what he wanted. Back then, he couldn’t imagine it coming true. But Sans promised that he would try to make it happen one day. And he rarely made promises. 

When the visions ended, he found himself kneeling on the floor, heaving tiredly. He couldn’t stop the tears from leaking out. 

They were never dreams. They were memories. His worst fears were true. It was real. It was all real. 

Papyrus turned his head to find that the tall shadow was now on the wall beside him. “Y-You are real,” he croaked to the shadow. “You are here.”

The shadow remained still at first, but then it leaped out of the wall at Papyrus. The skeleton’s vision was quickly covered by darkness. He wailed in terror before his sight flickered back on. He was now laying outside in the snow. 

The skeleton got up and looked around. He was alone in the forest, near the top of a snowy mountain. Thick frosted trees were scattered everywhere. He had no idea where he was. 

He spun around when he heard a low hiss. Creeping its way through the snow and past the trees, a bone creature was making its way to him. It had a body similar to a wolf’s skeleton, but the head was vicious and dragon-like. Both of its eyes glowed a dark blue light. It bared its fangs, revealing more blue light that poured from its mouth. It was exactly like the shadow that had chased him through Waterfall, but now Papyrus was faced with the real thing. 

Soon enough the creature stopped walking and charged through the snow towards the trembling skeleton. Papyrus shrieked and ran away from the creature, making his way up the mountain. 

Papyrus couldn’t help his panicked form of breathing. He knew he wasn’t fast enough to outrun the beast. It probably wouldn’t be long until he was attacked. 

He knew that he should be using his magic right now, but at the same time he could feel that his soul was full of dark energy. Once his magic was used, everything that he feared would return. He couldn’t risk that kind of danger. 

But at the same time, he was in complete danger right now as well. If he didn’t use his magic, what would happen then?

When the creature hissed again, the noise came from right behind Papyrus. The skeleton couldn’t let himself die. And he had no idea what this beast wanted to do to him. 

He closed his eyes, focusing on the magic that surged through him. He then stopped in place and clenched his hands, bringing it all forward. 

Papyrus opened his eye sockets when he heard the creature whine. He turned around to find the bone monster crouching in the snow, trembling. 

Shadows were surrounding the creature, holding it in place. Papyrus reached out his hand and squeezed the air. Right when he did, the creature let out a long pained whine. He could feel that his magic was crushing it. He chuckled and reached out his other hand, further pulling on his magic. He focused on crushing the beast until it let out a howl of despair. Dark fog spread from the trees, covering the creature and pushing it deeper into the snow. In the beast’s eyes, he could only see pain. Papyrus was enjoying it immensely. 

Wait, why?

Papyrus gasped when he realized what he was doing. He let his magic go, but it was too late. The creature quickly melted, turning into a shadow that raced along with the others.

The dark fog continued to swirl through the forest in waves. The trees around him were now black. Shadows ran around him swiftly. His soul was getting colder. 

Darkness was pouring in. Tears rushed out of his eye sockets like rivers, but when one of the tears fell into his palm he realized that it was made of a black murky liquid. He was laughing and crying at the same time. It came out in sparse huffs. He brought his hands up to examine them. Papyrus smiled.

The fog grew around the area, both trapping and being controlled by him. The black liquid continued to run down his face, staining his clothes. He could barely see. In the background, he could hear the howling of wind and booming thunder. 

His crying was continuing to turn more into laughing by the second. It wasn’t like his usual laughing, but more quiet and raspy.

Papyrus’ smile was so strong now that it hurt. Everything hurt. The darkness was crushing him from inside. He was so frozen, he felt like he could shatter like ice. 

He moved his hands to his face and tried to wipe the blackness away. It only caused more of a mess, now drenching his hands in the liquid. He laughed harder. His chest was going to collapse. 

Even though he could hardly see, he looked up and spoke in a broken voice, _“I am here.”_


	12. Sledding

“Papyrus. His name is Papyrus.” Undyne repeated the words over and over again. “He’s my best friend. He’s the Great Papyrus.”

She continued to march up the snowy hill. There was fog seeping everywhere, dampening the trees and turning them black. She knew he was nearby. She could feel his soul growing closer.

His soul was in danger. Undyne had to be there to save him. She would not forget.

There was a massive storm of black fog up ahead, almost more like a cloud. Inside the fog it kept thundering with blue light. There were shadows moving speedily by her across the snow. 

The higher she went, the less she could see. Fog was everywhere now, darkening the world. She was in the center of a storm. Gusts of wind blew by, causing loose hairs to seep out of her ponytail. The blue thunder continued to boom now around her. It was so frigid that she was chattering her teeth out loud. No coat could protect her from this storm. Undyne continued up, relying on her soul to guide her further to Papyrus. 

When she didn’t think it could get any darker, she saw a figure lying in the snow. 

“Papyrus!” Undyne ran over to the limp skeleton. 

When she reached him, she fought the urge to throw up. A thick black liquid was leaking out of Papyrus’ eye sockets and had stained spots all over his body. Undyne kneeled down and carefully touched his head, which felt just as cold as the snow. 

Not sure what to do, Undyne pulled him into her arms and hugged his frail body tightly. Being this close to him, she could feel his soul. It was only growing colder and darker, and was in so much pain that it just wanted to give up. 

“No,” she whispered to Papyrus in her arms. “You can’t give up. You have to stay determined. You’re the Great Papyrus, remember?” She choked on a cry before continuing, “You have to remember. You can’t forget. I’ll never forget you. I’m right here, always. Please stay determined…”

Undyne tried her best to stay strong and not cry, but it was difficult. Before she could weep too hard, Papyrus’ eye sockets blinked a couple times. They looked just a tad more lively. 

“Pa-Papyrus?” she sniffed. 

When Papyrus spoke, his voice was sickly. “Stay away from me.”

“Wha-?”

“Stay away!” Undyne’s soul suddenly turned blue and she was lifted off the ground. She was held several feet in the air amongst the building fog. She thrashed against the hold on her soul, trying desperately to escape. Undyne tried yelling his name, but it couldn’t be heard over the sound of the blue thunder. 

Being up in the fog, where she could only see darkness, she felt scared and alone. Shivers of cold and fear ran through her body. Undyne also felt angry. She needed to fight back. She needed to destroy this force that was trapping her. She almost summoned a spear in her hand to strike her attacker down. 

But Papyrus was the one doing this to her. She couldn’t forget that. Why was it so easy to forget that? Undyne clenched her fists in determination. She would not attack Papyrus. Instead she focused again on his soul. Though she couldn’t really see Papyrus through the fog, she could still feel his soul. It was now pulsing, giving the darkness a fight. 

Undyne once again called out from the bottom of her own soul. “Stay determined, Papyrus! I’m right here for you!” Even though her words were masked by the thunder, the meaning was there.

She yelped when the grasp on her soul was let go. Undyne crashed into the snow and ran up to find Papyrus kneeling on the ground before her. He was trying to cover his face with his hands while the black liquid continued to spread further, now staining the snow. 

Undyne cradled the shivering skeleton in her arms, ignoring his weak cries and commands to stay away. She then walked quickly back in the direction she came, following her footsteps in the snow.

“P-Please l-let me g-go,” Papyrus groaned. 

“Shut up, nerd. I’m saving you.”

As Undyne continued to stride along, the fog began to diminish bit by bit. The thunder sounded more distant. They were getting out of the storm. Papyrus’ shivering was even starting to dwindle.

Even though the fog was decreasing, Undyne noticed that the shadows were growing in numbers. They raced around her on the ground in a threatening manner. She couldn’t really make out any of their shapes; they were moving too fast for that.

Undyne yelled in terror when something grabbed her boot, and she had a feeling that it was one of the shadows. Losing her balance, she shifted her body to fall on her side and not hurt Papyrus. “Shit,” she cursed under her breath. Her arm felt broken, though it was probably just fractured. Hot tears ran down her frozen cheek.

Papyrus shakily sat up before her. Undyne did her best to sit up too while holding her burning arm. “U-Undyne?” Papyrus whimpered. 

“Yeah… just give me a second…” Undyne said while trying to take deep breaths. Her mind flooded with pain, masking the fact that she had to get her and Papyrus away.

The skeleton looked around worriedly before he suddenly ran off. He stumbled at first, but then got a good pace going. Undyne let out another breath. It was probably best for Papyrus to get away. Maybe he could get her help. 

Undyne was caught off guard when Papyrus came running back to her. He was dragging something behind him. She narrowed her eye to see that it was a sled. It was a wooden toboggan sled, big enough to fit two monsters on it. 

With all of her strength, Undyne managed to get up from the snow and sat at the back of the sled. Papyrus sat in front of her to grip the front of the sled, while Undyne wrapped her good arm around him firmly. Even though they were on a snowy mountain, they weren’t moving yet. The shadows continued to flash by them, and Undyne looked behind her to see that the darkest part of the fog was making its way down the mountain. 

Determined to get going, Papyrus scooted forward on the sled. The sled moved an inch each time he shifted his body. Undyne quickly joined in. Soon, the sled got enough momentum and began to race down the hill. Wind blew by rapidly, causing her eye to water. The trees whizzed by, making them look like a bunch of thin lines. Undyne could only imagine how bad it would be if they ran into one at this speed. 

She shot a glance behind her to see that the shadows were giving in a chase, trying to keep up. Soon enough however, the shadows began to disappear one by one. The fog was nowhere to be seen now. Undyne then looked forward to watch while they continued to fly down the hill. She realized that Papyrus was trembling in her arm, yelling fearfully as they zoomed along. Part of his scarf was fluttering rapidly. 

Undyne smiled and did her best to push her pain aside. She then celebrated out loud on their way down the mountain. “Woooo!”

“Not wooo!” Papyrus hollered.

Eventually they slowed down and came to a stop when they reached the bottom of the hill. Papyrus let out a shaky sigh of relief. Undyne was relieved too, mostly because there were no more shadows or fog to worry about. 

Papyrus turned around in the sled to look at her. Undyne’s heart sunk a little when she saw his face again. Black tear tracks had stained his face, not to mention that the rest of his body was also splotchy, especially his hands. He looked dismal, scared, and exhausted. He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped himself when he choked on a cry. 

“Aw, Papyrus,” Undyne used her good arm to pull him into a strong hug. 

“The- the n-nightmares,” he wept. “Th-The nightmares a-are real. -hic- S-Something’s t-taking over me, and I-I don’t know what t-to do! I-I feel like I-I’m disappearing, and ev-everyone’s f-forgetting about me a-already! F-For a s-second b-back there, I d-din’t know who I w-was!”

Undyne hugged him more tightly while he continued to break down in tears. “You are not forgettable,” she said heartily. “Something wrong is happening, and we will put an end to it. I promise.”

After a few minutes of just hugging each other, Undyne heard some footsteps crunch through the snow. She turned her head to see Doggo running to them through the trees. “Doggo!” she called excitedly. 

“Do I even want to ask what happened here?” Doggo asked when he reached them. He was looking at Papyrus with the most concerned look on his face. 

“We’ll explain it all later!” Undyne said hastily. “But first, we need to crash at your house for a bit.” She then pointed to the rope connected to the front of the sled. “Now mush!”

Doggo growled and picked up the rope. “You’re lucky that you two look like you’re on the brink of dusting.” He trudged forward and dragged them along. 

Undyne squeezed Papyrus happily and let out another cheer. “Woooo!”


	13. We Have a Flashlight

“...See? The light makes everything better.”

Papyrus’ vision was being bombarded with light. His eye sockets were closed, but brightness was still peaking its way through. Part of him felt pained by the burning sensation, while another part felt relieved by the retreat of darkness. He peaked open his eyes to find two blurry faces looking down at him. He quickly closed them again when the brightness hurt him too much. 

When Papyrus spoke his voice was dry and raspy. “Wh-What’s going on?”

“Undyne’s trying to blind you, buddy.” That was Doggo’s voice. “But she does seem to have a point.”

When light was no longer peaking into his vision, Papyrus once again opened his eye sockets. He was laying down on some kind of couch, and Undyne and Doggo were both standing over him. Alphys and Napstablook were also there, standing just behind the other two. 

Looking into his eyes, Undyne gave him a big smile. “Hey, punk! How do you feel?”

“Better than before,” Papyrus admitted.

“See?” Undyne turned to the three other monsters. “He even feels better!” Papyrus then noticed that Undyne was holding a flashlight in her hand. 

“Yeah, we all saw what the light did.” Doggo crossed his arms. “Now, what the hell does it mean?”

“It’s simple, really! Light beats the darkness!” Undyne looked at Alphys for confirmation. “Right Alphys?”

The dinosaur hesitated. “W-Well, k-kind of. It’s more c-complicated than that.”

“Ok, maybe it’s more complicated. But that’s the main point, right?” Undyne pointed at Papyrus’ face. “All we used was a flashlight and now his black tear tracks are gone!”

Papyrus felt his face with his hands. Was that true? Was the liquid darkness gone? He wished he had a mirror. 

“So, what are we supposed to do?” Doggo asked. “There’s no way that the light can just fix everything that quickly.”

Papyrus wasn’t sure how he knew what he was saying, but his soul was confident that it was the truth. “We need to go to the lab,” he said from the couch. “That’s where the source of the darkness is. If we don’t destroy it, this will only get worse.”

Alphys seemed worried, stumbling on her own words. “A-Are you s-sure?”

The skeleton nodded. “I have memories from the lab. I had been there for a long time, I just couldn’t remember. This darkness that I feel… it comes from the lab. I know it does.”

“That would make sense,” Undyne agreed, “I mean, Sans used to work there!”

Papyrus almost couldn’t comprehend those words. “What?”

“Oh, yeah,” Undyne said casually, “Alphys used to work with Sans at the lab. He probably never told you because it was dangerous or something. It probably has exactly to do with the darkness!”

Papyrus hugged his knees. How could Sans hide something like that from him? He honestly felt more angry than shocked. Why did he get to decide if Papyrus got the truth? Maybe it would be a lot easier to deal with the darkness if he knew about its source in the first place. 

But he couldn’t worry about that now. He could be mad at Sans later. Now, he had to go to the lab. 

Before he could get off the couch, two huge dog monsters ran into the room from a different part of the house. Papyrus then realized that they must have been in Doggo’s house. That would explain the slight barking going on in the background. 

The dogs nipped at each other playfully before they almost barreled right into Doggo. The pup stepped back and growled at them harshly. “Watch where you’re going!”

The dogs restlessly stood still to the best of their abilities. Their huge tongues lapped at the air while they panted loudly. 

One of the dogs asked Undyne, “How’s your arm?”

Undyne smiled and shook both of her arms freely. “Great, thanks! That green stuff sure is amazing.”

The other dog gave Papyrus a slightly concerned look and asked, “Do you need the green stuff?”

“It’s called magic,” Doggo sighed and walked over to the skeleton on the couch. “And he’s fine.” He looked into his eye sockets. “You’re fine, right?”

Papyrus nodded. He was as fine as he could get. 

“Anyway,” Doggo said while he took Papyrus’ hand to help him off the sofa, “We aren’t staying here anymore. We’re going to the lab.”

Both of the dogs tilted their heads. “The lab? What are you going to the lab for?”

“None of your business,” Doggo replied firmly. “Just tell our parents that it’s legal.”

While the kids left out the front door, Undyne quickly called behind her, “Bye, doggies! Thanks again!” before she shut the door. 

On the way from Doggo’s house to the lab, Papyrus quickly stopped by his house to change. Black liquid had permanently stained his clothes. 

When he looked into his drawer, an old white t-shirt and black sweatpants stuck out like flashing lights. Just by the sight of them Papyrus could hear the echoing vents and feel the cold metal beneath his feet.

The skeleton came out the front door to stand before his friends wearing nothing but the clothes that stuck out to him in the drawer. Even his feet were now bare, which were already becoming numb in the snow. 

Undyne narrowed her eye. “Aren’t you cold?”

Papyrus had been permanently cold for a long time. At this point, clothes did nothing. He decided to reply with, “It helps me remember.” Without another word, he headed off towards Waterfall, his friends cautiously following behind.

They got to the lab in a relatively short time. Papyrus had only been thinking about what Sans could possibly be hiding from him on the walk there. Now that they were faced with the gigantic white building, he turned back around to face his friends. 

“I have to go back,” he said bluntly. “I can’t run anymore. This isn’t something I can run from. This is destiny. So either I face it, or I lose everything. But you guys don’t have to do anything.”

“Don’t give us that,” Undyne immediately replied. “I’m going with you all the way, punk. Even if we end up in a creepy scary mess.” The others nodded in silent agreement. 

Papyrus couldn’t help but smile. He had wanted friends for a while, and now he had the best of the best. 

Alphys went ahead and led them through the beginning of the lab. She then went to an elevator and said, “We need to get to th-the basement. That’s what’s been shut down, b-but where most of the big experiments were. It's where we’ll find the answers we’re looking for.”

They all compacted themselves into the small elevator and went down in mostly silence. The elevator made a loud low hum the entire way down. 

When the doors opened, they found themselves standing before a dark hallway. Papyrus shivered when he saw it. The dark metal hall resembled something that looked exactly like his nightmares. All that was missing was some fog and shadows. 

Undyne still had her flashlight and immediately turned it on to shine down the hall. The yellow light pierced through some of the darkness, but it wasn’t enough to fully eliminate the area, or reach the end of the hallway. 

“Well, this is already spooky,” Undyne commented. She looked at the others, as if she was trying to see if anyone wanted to go back. No one looked concerned however, and Napstablook even floated forward a bit to enter the hallway. 

If Papyrus was alone, he would probably be having a panic attack right now. The mix of wearing clothes full of dreadful memory, having his bare feet touch the cold metal floor, and being surrounded by darkness and the noises of distant machinery matched too perfectly with everything he had been fearing his entire life. But having his friends around him and Undyne leading the way with her bright flashlight made things bearable enough. 

Alphys walked by Undyne, leading them through the dark endless halls. Unlike everyone else, she looked like she belonged in this area, wearing a white lab coat and all. She walked through every empty room and hallway with confidence, clearly knowing her way around like it was on the back of her hand. 

After a while of wandering through darkness with the guidance of the small light, a new strange sound echoed through the deserted environment. They all jumped and froze in place. It sounded like the moan of a living creature. 

Papyrus reactively grabbed the flashlight from Undyne and waved it wildly, illuminating everything he could to find the cause of the noise. 

When he turned completely around, the light hit a large white figure. The light brightly shone off of the white color. Papyrus continued to cast the figure in light, and soon the group was able to see a giant dog-like creature a few feet away. It’s whole body was gooey and dripping, like it could melt into a complete liquid at any point. It approached the group with large intimidating feet while continuing to moan noises that sounded both threatening and painful. Between its legs, there were shadows that resembled cats. In the middle of its round face was a complete black circle. 

“What the hell?” Doggo growled. He already had daggers ready in his paws. Undyne also looked ready to either fight or flee. Napstablook and Alphys were still in the shocked and terrified stage. 

Something about the creature struck a chord with the skeleton. Maybe it was the way it looked in pain. Or perhaps it brought back a memory he couldn’t fully remember. Without really thinking, he walked away from the group and towards the creature, flashlight still in hand. 

The monster towered over him, looking incredibly intimidating and dangerous. Doing his best to have courage, Papyrus reached out his hand towards the creature. 

“Papyrus,” Undyne whispered frantically, as if shouting would cause the monster to begin a killing rampage. “Whatever you’re doing, stop!”

Instead of listening to her, Papyrus remained still and waited. The creature’s moaning became more soft, and eventually it lowered itself to touch the top of its head to Papyrus’ hand. He grinned warmly while the creature let out a relaxed hum. The giant tail behind the monster began wagging and the face of the creature looked directly at the flashlight. Reading the monster’s desire, he threw the flashlight a few feet away. Everyone behind him gasped in horror. The creature however ran to the flashlight, and grabbed it with one of the paws to bring it back. Papyrus took it and praised, “Good boy… or girl.”

The creature let out another delighted hum before it melted into a complete liquid that drained into one of the floor’s vents. Everyone just stood there for a minute, trying to capture what just happened. 

Finally, Doggo snorted and mumbled, “So stereotypical.”

Alphys continued to lead the way through the deserted lab. As they went deeper down the halls, it felt like the darkness was growing. Maybe the flashlight was losing its power, or something else was gaining its power. 

But while the darkness continued to grow, Papyrus felt something strange happening within his soul. He looked down to find that something blue was glowing beneath his white shirt. 

“Dude,” Doggo gasped from next to him. His unfocussed eyes were doing their best to lock on Papyrus’ shirt. “Your soul is blue now!”

His soul was shining brighter with every passing second. Undyne and Alphys turned around to also see the growing light. He tugged on his shirt as if that would mask the light, but it didn’t do anything. The soul was now shining so brightly that his complete soul was visible under the shirt. 

“It’s no big deal,” Papyrus assured. “Let’s just get going and find some answers.”

Right after he spoke, he was suddenly falling. Before he could yell in surprise, he was standing on the floor again. Except he wasn’t standing on the floor. Because everyone else was standing on the floor. And they were all upside-down above him, like they were bats on a ceiling. Except he was the one on the ceiling.

The others looked up at him in surprise. Papyrus was used to standing like this thanks to his nightmares, but now having monsters standing on the actual floor put the strangeness of the situation into perception. 

“Um, Papyrus?” Undyne called from the floor. “Are you okay?”

He tried controlling his soul to get himself off the ceiling, but his gravity control seemed to have a mind of its own. “Yeah,” he finally replied. “I’m not sure if I can get down though.”

Before anyone could figure out what to do next, a scream of machinery echoed throughout the empty halls. Papyrus shuddered. The ventilation was moaning louder, and the distant machines roared loud enough to shake the metal they were standing on. 

Papyrus then turned around to find a large shadow race across the metal floor, right towards the others standing in its path. With little time to think, he yelled, “Undyne!” before he threw the flashlight he was holding up towards the floor. Undyne caught it and immediately shined the light towards the shadow. When it was impacted by light, it hissed and shrunk away, hiding into the darkness. More roaring and hissing grew around them. Without needing to say anything, the monsters ran in the opposite direction of the shadow, lighting their way with the flashlight. Papyrus ran above them on the ceiling.

When they came to an intersection of hallways, one of the halls was full of a rumbling mess of shadows and fog, storming to the intersection at an alarming speed. Undyne shined the light at it, causing it to hiss and shoot away. With a cry of anger and determination, Undyne charged after the cluster, flashlight ready in hand. Papyrus and the others followed a little bit behind. 

The shadows lead them into a large room filled with metal desks and large cabinets. The dark figure swept over the desks, charging onto the cabinets and closer to the ceiling. Undyne responded by throwing her flashlight to the ceiling. Papyrus caught the light, and used it to directly hit the building darkness. It once again shrieked and hissed while it raced for another hall. Relying on his soul, Papyrus jumped from the ceiling to the wall, shortening his distance from the shadows. He then raced after it from the wall. 

Doggo ran faster on the floor, getting closer to the figure. Papyrus threw the flashlight to him, and then Doggo ran quicker towards the darkness. When it hissed again, it took a sharp left turn down another hall. Papyrus and Doggo were shocked to find Alphys, running from the other end of that hallway. The dog threw the flashlight as far as he could, which went just far enough for Alphys to catch it. She then quickly hit the shadow with light before it could get past her. The darkness screamed and tried to go back, but Alphys threw the flashlight to Napstablook, who was floating by Papyrus and just in front of the figure. The ghost yelped while the darkness surged toward him, but it shrunk back when it was once again hit by light. 

Suddenly, the darkness changed tactics, and instead of trying to get away it swept to the wall and dove its way right into Papyrus’ shining soul. The soul blinked a couple of times before going dark, and he found himself falling to the floor. His vision was blinking in and out of darkness, but when he could see again he found his friends standing above him worriedly. 

“You good, punk?” Undyne asked quickly. 

Papyrus oddly felt fine. He didn’t feel like darkness was taking over like he had in the past. Maybe the darkness was gone, or it was hiding somewhere within him. “Good enough,” he replied. He then got up and eagerly went deeper down the hall, desperate for a way to end all of this. 

After just getting on their way down the hall, the monsters all suddenly jumped when they heard another scream of machinery behind them. They looked around to find instead of a single cluster of darkness, a huge storm full of dark clouds and blue lightning was surging its way to them, filling the entire place. The booming and rumbling was so loud it shook the hall enough to cause everyone to fall from their feet. However, the kids ran together from the storm and down the hallway. 

After just a minute of running, Papyrus could see that the hall was coming to an end. The flashlight he was holding lit across the metal floor, but there was a black pit of nothingness at the end of the hall. He then realized that there was a large gap in the floor, before the hall kept continuing after the large pit. It would be an impossibly far jump. Only Napstablook could make it over that. 

But Papyrus had an idea. “Keep running!” he encouraged everyone around him. “And then jump over the pti!”

“We can’t make a jump that far!” Doggo panted. 

“Just trust me!” Papyrus had reached the pit by then, and he was the first one to jump for it. Using his magic, he reached out and held his soul firmly blue. The blue light glowed brighter than ever, illuminating the area around them. He then pushed himself over the gap and crashed to the floor on the other side. Napstablook quickly floated up beside him. 

Undyne cheered balisticly while she jumped over the pit, and sighed with relief when her soul turned blue. Papyrus concentrated on his magic, grasping Undyne’s soul and pulling her to the floor on the other side. Doggo and Alphys also joined, and soon he was grasping at all three of their souls to move them across the gap. 

“I hate this,” Doggo murmured fearfully. 

With all of his strength, he pulled one last time to bring everyone to the floor. The storm had now reached the other side of the gap, and seemed to not want to cross over to their side. Papyrus laid on the floor exhausted while he watched the still storm watch them from across the pit. He then got up when Undyne took his hand and did her best to lead him quickly with the others down the hall. 

Papyrus couldn’t help but keep looking back while he was dragged down the hallway. The storm was still just standing there. It seemed to be waiting for something to happen. 

Before he could figure out what the storm was doing, he yelled aloud in agony and ripped his hand out of Undyne’s grasp. He then fell to the floor and squeezed his hands on his shirt above his soul, which was now blinking furiously from brightly shining blue to complete darkness. His mind was becoming more clouded, and his entire body was filled with agony again. 

“I’m being torn apart,” he croaked. 

Darkness was blinking in and out, but at the same time something in his right eye socket was flashing. While his soul was flickering with blue light, so was his eye. He then noticed that Undyne had kneeled down next to him, and asked, “Can you see me?”

“I can see myself,” he replied horsley. “I’m a mess! Scattered across space and time. I’m just an echo. You hear me? I’m an echooooo!” It felt like his words were being spoken somewhere else, being passed down through echo flowers and deeper down caves. “I’m just an echo of someone who’s gone!" 

Undyne smacked him hard across the face. Some sense of reality was able to hit him along with the painful slap. He remained silent while he sat up, trying to breathe and focus on reality. But the darkness was still surging inside. 

Papyrus shook his head. “He’s here,” he finally said as calmly as he could. “And there’s nothing I can do about it.” He looked down at his palms.

The storm was racing its way to them. He could feel it inside, and he had to be ready when it reached them. Pushing the others aside, Papyrus stood up and took a few steps ahead down the hall where the storm would soon be. 

It came faster than anyone else could react to it. But he was ready. Papyrus allowed his magic to take over. Blue light shined from his soul, but just slightly flickered from his eye. He then focused on the approaching storm. It was the same darkness that was deep within him. The same darkness that drove him crazy. The same darkness that he seemingly couldn’t live without.

Feelings of hatred and mericleness surged through him. His vision was now full of complete darkness. He focused on crushing it all with gravity, but because he was so full of darkness he also soon found himself being crushed to the floor. 

He was being pushed down by an unstoppable force. Papyrus felt like he was being torn apart again, crushed into nothingness. He was torturing the darkness and everything that could harm his friends, but he was part of that. He had to defeat himself to save everyone else.

Before he could even attempt to further harm the darkness, a deadly voice cut through the sounds of hissing darkness and screaming machinery. 

“g e t t h e f u c k a w a y f r o m m y b r o t h e r .”

Papyrus’ vision flickered back on. Any blue light within him was gone now. He was still somehow floating in the air inside of the dark storm he had been trying to suppress. Then some unknown force turned his soul blue again, and he was pulled back quickly through the air until he crashed to the floor by his friends and behind… Sans. 

Sans was wearing a white lab coat like Alphys’. He stood boldly in front of the kids to confront the storm. When he glanced back at Papyrus, his left eye was shining a solid angry blue. His smile was crazily furious. He then turned back to the storm and reached out his hand, causing the darkness to immediately dwindle. The thunder died down and the fog shrunk away with the shadows. Pained hissing filled the room, and Papyrus couldn’t help but whimper as well. Every time the darkness was hurt, he was also in agony. 

Eventually, the pain was enough for Papyrus to finally pass out.

He woke up in bed again. He sat up to find Sans sitting in the chair next to his bed. His face looked cold and exhausted, far from his usual smiling self.

Everything that Papyrus felt was fogged with confusion, but he knew that there was fury stirring inside him. He tried to get out of bed, but Sans quickly stood from the chair and blocked his way. His face somehow turned more cold with anger.

“i don’t even know where to start,” he said bitterly. “do you realize what you just did?”

Papyrus wasn’t sure how he would answer that question, but he didn’t want to anyway. Instead, he stood on top of the bed and snarled, “Don’t you dare act like this is my fault. You have done nothing but lie to me, Sans. And look where that’s gotten me!”

Sans suddenly flinched and stepped back, allowing Papyrus to jump to the floor. “what do you mean?” He sounded much more concerned. 

“You know exactly what I mean!” he yelled harshly. “All this time you have lied to me about my entire life! How long were you going to keep that up? I have gone crazy, Sans. There are so many things wrong with me, and because of you I have no idea why! Only just now have I scraped the surface of getting some actual answers!”

Sans switched right back to anger in an instant. “you think you got answers? you almost died! all i asked from you was to stay safe, but you have far crossed that damn line!”

While Papyrus shouted back, he was choking more and more on held back cries. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth? Why can’t you tell me why I’m being filled with pain and darkness? What is wrong with me?!”

“i heard what you told your friends. you’re making up some real bullshit to blame this on me,” he spat. 

Papyrus suddenly felt like he had been stabbed. “You think I’m lying?” He stumbled and sat on his bed, feeling confused and oddly defeated. “H-How?” It was becoming harder to not lose himself. 

While he tried to pull himself together, he heard Sans bluntly say, “you’re grounded.” Before he left Papyrus’ room and slammed the door shut. 

He couldn’t do anything but stare at his shaking hands. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the darkness completely took over. Then he could stop trying to fight.


	14. The Royal Scientist

Undyne threw another spear. It sliced through the air and into the sparkling gem stuck in the cave wall, shattering the stone. Broken pieces of white glass-like rock fell to the ground. After trying to hit the target several times, she had finally succeeded. 

“Nice,” Doggo muttered beside her. He was sitting on a rock with Alphys while Napstablook floated beside them. Undyne nodded her thanks. 

When Sans had come to their rescue in the lab, he immediately teleported everyone outside when he had the chance. Papyrus was knocked out, so he carried his brother and told everyone to “leave papyrus alone if you want to stay alive”. Not the kindest of words. 

Now they were in Waterfall, without anyone being sure what should be done next. Undyne knew that they couldn’t just give up. If that lab had proved anything, it was that Papyrus’ condition was getting worse. Darkness was still taking over. Whatever that meant, they couldn’t stop. 

“You know what would be nice?” Undyne asked while she summoned another spear into her hand, choosing another distant gem as a target. 

Before anyone could reply, she continued, “If Sans stopped trying to hide all this shit that _we’ve_ been having to deal with.” She harshly threw the spear to the cave wall. It crashed somewhere near the gem, missing the mark. Undyne frowned while she watched the spear uselessly hit the ground. “I mean, what was he doing in the lab anyway? With a lab coat on! How did he know how to hold back the darkness?”

“Well, Papyrus kind of knows how to do that too,” Doggo commented. 

“And what does that mean?” Undyne asked as she turned to face him directly. Doggo hesitated where he sat before he just shrugged. 

“Y-You know,” Alphys began shyly, “When w-we were in the l-lab, there were moments where I th-think I could remember… things. Sometimes I would r-remember things like working on experiments. But there were other memories that I didn’t know I had. L-like, talking to someone… someone who I think is now gone.”

Undyne remembered their conversation from earlier. “You said someone disappeared when the world went dark, right?”

Alphys hesitated. “It’s not really a disappearance, at least to me. Someone is g-gone from both existence and memory. B-But now, just like how we forgot Papyrus and then began to remember, I could remember more in the lab.”

“So you remember more in the lab,” Undyne stated. “Then let’s go back to the lab.”

“Alright,” Doggo put his paws up. “Wait a second.”

“What, do you not want to figure this out?” She crossed her arms. “Do you not want to end this already?”

“Do you not wanna live?” he retorted. “Because I’m pretty sure last time we were in the lab we almost died.”

“We’ll be more careful this time.”

“Yeah? And how will we be more careful against a storm of darkness?”

“Listen,” Undyne stopped her foot angrily. “You don’t have to come with us. Any point you wanna leave, feel free to do so. But we’re going to figure this out. We’re going back.”

Doggo seemed frustrated for a moment before he lowered his head and sighed. “Of course I’m not going to ditch you to the lab. But could you just think about what you're risking for a second? Because right now, Papyrus is safe at home. I don’t get why we have to go back now.”

“Papyrus is not safe,” Undyne snapped. “The sooner we can figure out what’s wrong, the sooner we can end it.” She turned to Alphys. “You agree with me, right?”

Alphys nodded. “I need to remember. This memory, this m-monster, it’s somewhere in the back of what I can remember. I fear that if it didn’t exist when it was forgotten, now that it’s being remembered means that it’s making a c-comeback. And that could explain the r-returning darkness.”

Undyne looked at Napstablook. “What do you think?”

The ghost flinched at being noticed and looked down. After hesitating, he said, “We… should go to the lab. Just for a few answers. Then… we should definitely get out of there.”

Undyne was uplifted by his commitment. “That’s great, Napstablook! So we’re all in agreement!” She pointed deeper into the caves. “To the lab!”

Undyne carried the flashlight again while they left the elevator and entered the cold empty halls. The place was almost silent except for the distant rumbling of machinery, as if nothing crazy or dangerous had ever happened here. 

But they didn’t make it that far down before they heard a low humming. Then there was a rattling sound, as if someone was lumbering to them on the metal floor. Undyne sighed with relief when her flashlight began to capture that it was the giant white dog creature and not a supernatural storm. She still felt her anxiety rise however when the creature skidded to a halt just a few feet away from the group. 

The mass of living goop stood boldly before them. While the other monsters flinched away in panic, Undyne did her best to mimic the creature’s fearless stance. She raised her flashlight for the creature to clearly see. “Hey,” she said gently. “The fun light stick is back!”

The figure hummed excitedly, wagging it’s massive tail. Undyne then threw the flashlight to bounce on the floor before the creature caught it with it’s huge paws. It bounded back to the fish monster and then lowered itself to be pet. Undyne giggled and gently rubbed the creature’s head. 

“See?” She looked behind to see her friends just behind her still cautious. “Kindness goes a long way.”

Eventually, Alphys approached and also pet the creature’s head. Doggo cautiously scratched behind the goopy ears. Napstablook floated beside them, seeming upset that he couldn’t join in. 

After receiving the kind attention, the creature rumbled happily before it melted into the vents again. She couldn’t believe that something so enormous could just melt into a liquid that was gone in seconds. After getting herself together, Undyne nodded to her friends and continued on her way.

Alphys led the way, going deeper into the dark halls. Undyne lit the way beside her with the flashlight. Everyone was quiet, listening to the distant rumble of machinery. 

“What even is that sound?” she whispered aloud. She remembered that for some reason the rumbling got louder around the same time the storm and shadows had formed. 

“It’s p-probably the core,” Alphys replied. “It’s this huge place that p-powers the entire Underground.”

“Wow,” she breathed. “Who made that?”

Alphys stopped walking, causing everyone to pause beside her. “I- I don’t know.”

A silent pause filled the air after she spoke, before the distant rumbling suddenly roared ear-splittingly loud, shaking the floor beneath them. Undyne spun around with her light to look for an approaching threat, and sure enough a black storm was surging through the hall behind them. Without another moment to think, the kids ran through the rattling halls away from the storm.

At the end of the hall, there was another large room, this time with a giant machine in the middle. It almost looked like it was in the shape of an animal skull. Leading the way, Undyne ran around the perimeter of the room, deciding where to go next. However, once the storm poured into the room, shadows and fog seemed to be building everywhere. Undyne stopped running and pressed herself against the wall, trying her best to keep away. She shined her light at the storm, but the darkness was everywhere and was getting too strong to disturb. 

Right when everyone had cowered together along the wall, a huge roar filled the room. Undyne looked up to find a white gooey liquid drip from a vent in the ceiling. When it fell to the ground in front of them, it built up as the giant dog-like creature. It let out a low threatening rumble before it leaped out at the storm.

The shadows and fog built up together to form a dark figure that fought against the creature. It swarmed around, hitting with blue lightning while the dog creature fought back with it’s enormous goopy paws. It seemed to absorb every round of the figure’s attacks. 

While the two were busy fighting and thrashing around the room, the monsters crept by the machine and ran for the nearest metal door. They slammed it shut behind them and then stood panting in the new small office. 

Undyne lit the room with her flashlight. It looked abandoned, consisting of only a wooden desk. Along with a million other things, this entire lab was lacking any style. She looked at her friends, checking if everyone was ok. Doggo was panting heavily while Napstablook just looked shaken. Alphys was busy staring at the desk with an unfocused glare. 

“Is everyone alright?” Undyne whispered. 

Before anyone else could reply, Alphys spoke softly, “This is it.” She paused then continued, “This is where he was. The royal scientist, I can remember n-now.”

“Oh, thank god,” Doggo panted. “Cause I did not want to go exploring again.”

Undyne approached Alphys and asked, “The royal scientist? What even is a royal scientist?”

“He was in charge of the entire lab,” Alphys replied. “He worked directly with the king. But w-when the world went dark… he was just forgotten.” She walked to the desk and put her hand on it. “I used to work with Sans a lot, but Sans was different from anyone else. He was created by Gaster.”

“Gaster’s his name?” Undyne asked.

Alphys jumped in place, as if she didn’t realize that she had just said his name. “Yes,” she finally replied. “He was Dr. Gaster, and I remember th-that he had created Sans from a piece of himself… I never really got the science behind that. I never knew that Papyrus e-existed then. But he has to have the same background.”

No one spoke for a while before Doggo said, “Ok, but Sans knows about this Gaster thing, or at least knows enough to warn us about the lab and be able to handle whatever the storm is. But Papyrus can’t remember a single memory.”

“But he is remembering more,” Undyne commented. “And the more he remembers, the more he’s losing himself. If Sans and Papyrus were both created from Gaster, that means that they are both pieces that were once him. If Sans remembers, then he knows how to keep the darkness away. But Papyrus is younger and already has an identity crisis because he can’t remember anything. Whenever he remembers, the darkness starts returning. What if Gaster is this darkness? What if Gaster is making him remember so he can come back through him? They are connected, after all.” 

“Oh my god,” Alphys gasped. “I think you got it.”

\---

Papyrus sat in his bed and stared at the floor angrily, looking at the strange shadow he was casting. He couldn’t believe how much Sans had hidden from him. But at the same time, he had also lied to his brother over and over again. 

He pounded his fist into the blankets. He could feel the darkness building inside, running off of the energy of his own rage. But he didn’t care. Whatever was coming could hurry up already for all he cared. 

He just wanted to know. He just wanted the truth. Now that wish seemed impossible.

_“It hurts, doesn’t it?”_

Instead of being weirded out by the talking shadow, he just replied, “It’s hard to tell. I feel like I’m numb to anything but pain.”

_“You think you are in pain. You cannot begin to comprehend what I feel every millisecond.”_

“Stop,” Papyrus said absentmindedly. He was beginning to shiver again. “You never stop. I can’t stand it anymore. I hate you.”

_“Then you hate yourself.”_

Without waiting another moment, the shadow leaped out of the floor and attacked the skeleton as a dark figure. Papyrus was too shocked to struggle or yell while he crashed into the wall.

The all too familiar darkness was leaking back into his vision. He tried to cover his face, but he realized that his hands were being grabbed by something. The shadow wouldn’t stop gripping his hands. 

The next few seconds went by rapidly. The door swung open when Sans entered the room, but a second later darkness was everywhere. 


	15. Hey Kids, Get In My Boat

Undyne ran through the heavy snow, not even caring about the cold anymore. Napstablook was floating his way beside her without showing a hint of exhaustion. Undyne heaved and pushed herself to run faster, wishing she could just float along like it was nothing. Doggo and Alphys were somewhere behind her, hopefully not too far. 

It felt like forever before she finally reached the skeletons’ house. She puffed out frozen air and put her hands on her knees while she watched Doggo and Alphys reach the front door a bit later. 

Once they were all together and she had the energy, Undyne knocked on the door eagerly. The door was frozen cold on her knuckles. 

They stood there quietly except for the collective panting. Undyne felt like time was becoming still. The door wasn’t moving, and anything beyond it was silent. It was as if she was expecting an answer from an empty cold house.

“Maybe they aren’t home,” Doggo suggested. 

Undyne looked at him with her narrowed eye. “Where would they have gone, Doggo?” she asked bitterly. 

He shrugged. “Just a thought.”

She sighed impatiently and knocked on the door again. This time her knuckles hit the frozen surface six times. She then backed up a few steps in the snow to see if she could see anything through the windows. But they were dark and lifeless, without any light or movement inside. She went up to one of the windows and peered in as best as she could. Nothing moved. The place was barren. 

She looked at the others who were still crowded by the door. “Where the hell are they?” She knew none of them knew that answer, but she wished something could calm the desperate panic growing within her. 

“Wait.” Doggo suddenly jumped with an idea and ran over to Undyne by the window. The others followed quickly. “Can’t you feel his soul sometimes? Like whenever Papyrus is feeling something, you can feel it too. And sometimes you know where to go.”

Undyne nodded hesitantly. “But I don’t feel any of that now.” She concentrated on her feelings to be sure, but they were only emotions of rushed anxiety. “And I can’t just do it on my own.”

“Can you try?”

Immediately, the memory hit her from when the world went dark. She was running through Waterfall. She was somehow floating above the water. She was reaching out for someone. 

Undyne looked down at the snow in thought. “Maybe,” she murmured. What did she do last time? How did she reach out the first time?

She closed her eye, focusing on her own soul. Before the world went dark, she used to go down to the river a lot and practice feeling everyone’s soul within her own. But since that incident, she had been scared to do so. 

“I can feel everyone’s souls within me,” she said under her breath, “together as one.”

There was a rhythm. A pattern of beats. Everyone’s souls were thumping, thumping, thumping. Together as one. 

But there was also darkness. God, it was everywhere. She could feel murky liquid collecting on her hands like sweat. The shadows were building, getting stronger and more intense. Deep within the darkness, Undyne could hear a growing name.

_Gaster._

Undyne opened her eye and sank her knees into the snow. She was shivering, but not because she was cold. She was terrified. She was terrified for him. The others crouched down with her, trying to be calm while she took rapid shaking breaths. 

“G-Gaster,” she looked at Alphys. “His name’s Gaster, right?”

Alphys looked full of concern. “Yes. Is he… he-”

“He’s coming back.” Undyne looked at her palms. Some of the moisture on them was much darker than usual. “But I don’t know where.”

Napstablook looked away and said quietly, “Well… maybe they could help us.”

She glanced up from her hands to see that the ghost was looking at the river down near the trees. 

“There’s not supposed to be a river there.” She jumped up at the realization. There had never been water in front of this house, it was always just snow and trees. But now a long deep river cut through the snow, and looking directly at them was a black hooded figure in a small wooden boat. 

Doggo crossed his arms. “Not gonna lie Napstablook, that thing is creepy.”

Undyne knew he was right, and under any other circumstances she would be running from that thing for her life. But now with Papyrus gone and _him_ returning, it felt more like help was staring at her right in the face. She crunched forward through the snow while everyone followed behind. 

When she came close enough, she could hear the water babbling as it rushed down the river. For something that shouldn’t exist, it all looked incredibly real. The hooded figure stood still on the boat, looking at the monsters patiently. 

After thinking about what she was going to say, she decided on, “Do you know where he is?”

_“The shadows are cutting deeper.”_

Undyne had no idea if she was the only one who heard that. It felt more like the words just echoed throughout her head. But she knew what it meant. 

She turned around to face the others. “They can help us. They know about Gaster and they’re here to help.”

When she took a step towards the boat, she looked back at everyone else. No one had moved a muscle. Undyne then realized what she was asking them to do. To get on a boat with the strangest creature in an unreal river to sail probably to where the shadows were cutting deeper. Who in their right mind would want to do that?

Undyne straightened her posture and said more boldly, “I have to go because this is what I was made to do. I’m a hero, and he’s my best friend. But you all have done more than enough.”

“You may be a hero,” Doggo acknowledged. “But we’ve all been doing some heroic shit too.” He took the match he still carried out of a pocket in his shorts. “And I for one and not stopping here when you need heroes the most.”

Alphys held the flashlight in her hands more tightly. “Papyrus has s-saved all of us more than once. We won’t forget.”

Napstablook looked to the ground and said, “He… He’s helped more monsters than you think. He deserves my help too, I guess.”

Undyne smiled and pumped her fist into the air. “You all are the best heroes yet!” She turned confidently back to the waiting boat and jumped into it from the snow. Napstablook floated in beside her while her and Doggo helped in Alphys. Undyne then stood to the front of the boat and pointed onward. “To the shadows!”

\---

He was surrounded by darkness. Papyrus’ soul was frozen solid blue. Every piece of him was being crushed and torn apart. It was a feeling he had become so used to, he was beginning to turn numb. But it still struck harder than a will to live. Standing before him, an unnatural creature remained in the darkness. Papyrus was being held in the air by his soul, so that him and the thing were almost face to face. 

It was him. The more Papyrus had to look at it, the more he realized it. His face was melting, his body was barely formed, but it was still him. He was there. Gaster.

Then the words began. Each one echoed through the darkness as if it were the shadows that talked. “ _It doesn’t feel good, does it? To be torn apart. To be scattered into little bits and pieces.”_ Gaster brought up a cloaked arm, and hiding under the dark fabric a white sharp finger pointed at his face. _“I wonder how much it would hurt, if I just cracked your skull, the way you cracked mine. If I took you apart, and scattered you everywhere. It is more painful than you can ever imagine. And the worst part is you can never die, no matter how hard you try. But now I am determined to stay alive. When I take back what’s mine, I will make sure that you suffer for eternity, exactly the way I did.”_

He grabbed one of Papyrus’ hands. He could feel himself trembling, but he couldn’t move any more than that. _“Finally, I will return. Finally, I am here.”_ After Gaster spoke he pierced one of his sharp fingers through his palms. Black thick liquid erupted from the hole that Gaster created. When he drew his finger away, it was covered in the stuff. The murky liquid continued to ooze from his palm, leaking off into the surrounding darkness. When the liquid died down he could more clearly see the uncanny black hole that sat in the middle of his hand. 

Then before he realized it, Gaster cut into his other hand. The unexpected pain hurt much worse. This time he was able to gasp in pain while more darkness leaked from his other palm. 

When he looked up from his hands, he could only see Gaster’s melting disfigured smile. The very sight of it made him shiver harder. He was looking into the face of something that didn’t belong in this world. And yet it was still there.

_“Do you want to see?”_ Gaster’s mouth didn’t move, but the words echoed around him loudly. _“You may not remember, but allow me to show you. See why you deserve to suffer this way. See what you did to me, you disgusting fragment of what I once was.”_

The darkness took over his vision, and then the memories began to play like he was living them again.

“Sans? Where are we going?”

“shhh, pap. i know this doesn’t make sense, but you have to be silent for me.”

Sans held Papyrus’ hand tightly in his, leading him on the narrow metal bridge by the core. Papyrus was scared. He didn’t like the noises that the core made, or how the ventilation system moaned above him. He also had no idea where Sans was taking him.

When they were halfway across the bridge, a familiar voice spoke behind him.

_“Going somewhere?”_

Sans stopped dead in place. He then immediately moved Papyrus behind him protectively, standing boldly before the shadow. 

_“I would say I should have known, but I already knew it. I was simply too engrossed in our experiment to believe it.”_

“we are leaving,” Sans declared sternly, though his voice was slightly shaking, “the experiments have failed, and there’s nothing more i can do. please just let us go. we won’t say anything about what happened.”

The shadow chuckled. _“I’m surprised you don’t have a stronger argument.”_ They took a step closer. _“I am still getting these… visions. I see the darkness that keeps growing. It’s getting closer by the minute. Alphys thinks it’s another universe, but I disagree. If someone fell into the core, the entire world would darken for a moment, before it resumed back to normal. However, the monster that would have fallen into the core would be scattered across time and space, most likely forgotten forever. And now I finally understand what these visions mean.”_

Papyrus gasped when his soul turned blue. Within a few seconds, he was lifted from the bridge and held in the air above the vast drop to the core. Terrified and shivering, he tried not to look down. Instead he watched while Sans’ soul also turned blue, keeping him still on the bridge. His face was full of terror. “no!” his shout filled the enormous empty room.

_“Once this useless creature is forgotten, we will be able to continue with no distractions. Then perhaps we will save monsterkind.”_

Papyrus could barely breathe. He was moments away from dying. He didn’t want to. Tears leaked from his eye sockets. He didn’t want to. He didn’t-

_‘Don’t give up!’_

He jerked his head, trying to see who had spoken. No one else was there. 

_‘Stay determined!’_

Papyrus did his best to take a deep breath. Something powerful was burning inside him. 

_‘I believe in you!’_

He was dropped for a few feet, but suddenly his soul once again turned blue and he was caught in the air. Papyrus sighed with relief. He had turned his own soul blue. He didn’t know that he could do that. The blue heart glowed brightly through his white t-shirt. With his soul burning passionately, he pulled himself higher until he was able to land back on the bridge. 

Once his hands and knees were on the metal, he let go of his magic and seethed from exhaustion. He could barely hear the shadow’s words above him.

_“...I would never suspect someone like you… to do something so… interesting… maybe I underestimated you…”_

When it touched his shoulder, his vision cut out. His soul was suddenly filled with different emotions. Rage, violence, mercilessness.

His vision returned when he turned the shadow’s soul blue, and threw them into the core. The room shook, causing him to fall onto his back. Sans knelt by his side and tried to say something. Papyrus couldn’t hear him over the thundering of the core.

_‘Stay determined…’_

Then the world went dark.


	16. Belief

“Woooo!”

Undyne stood at the front of the boat. They were traveling through everything and the world echoed around them. The air was fragmented and colorful, while the river they ventured through was dark and murky. 

They were travelling fast, but it was impossible to tell how swiftly they were moving. All that Undyne could see were the colors whizzing by in her vision. Behind her, Alphys was clutching the back of the boat for safety and Napstablook laid on the floor of the boat with a dazed expression on his face. Doggo was gripping the side of the boat painfully. He was slightly heaving, and it wasn’t long before he had thrown up into the dark water. 

Luckily, the boat stopped soon after that. Now it looked like they were in a part of Waterfall, but she didn’t recognize the place at all. The caves were dark and black fog pooled around the floor. 

Undyne jumped from the boat to the stone cold floor. After doing a final dry heave, Doggo followed after her. Naptstablook floated cautiously from the boat and Alphys wobbled after them. Undyne looked back to the cloaked figure. It gave them a slow nod and then sailed further down the black river, disappearing into darkness. 

Alphys lit her flashlight and shined it to the nearby fog. The darkness hissed and ran from the light source. Doggo sighed a shaky breath and lit up his match. It still shined brightly, but who knew how long that would last. Only then did Undyne realize that there were no stone stars anywhere. 

They walked a bit further down the caves, but it didn’t take that long until they came to a small figure stuck in the middle of a storm of shadows and fog. Papyrus was mostly drenched with black liquid and the shadows and fog seemed to radiate off of him. 

The darkness couldn’t come any closer to them thanks to the small light barrier made by Doggo’s match, but Alphy’s flashlight was getting dimmer. She shined the light towards Papyrus, but the dim warm light wasn’t much of a fight against the building darkness. 

She thought about trying to reach out for Papyrus’ soul again. He was bleeding blackness and the dark fog kept growing around him, but it was still just him. Gaster was making a comeback, but he wasn’t fully here yet. 

But before she could do anything, her soul turned blue. She looked around and saw that everyone else was stuck in place, just a few feet from the edge of the growing fog. And then suddenly Papyrus was getting attacked. Massive creature-like skulls attacked the small figure. Undyne then watched as Sans ran past them and continued to attack with bones and blue lasers. Her heart was in her throat. Sans was attacking his own brother.

The storm of fog fought back against Sans’ attacks. Shadows swept over and crushed the attacking bones and the firing skulls were drowning in fog. Sans backed away from the storm but continued his attacks. Undyne squinted at the fog and shadows, but she couldn’t see Papyrus anymore. It was all just darkness. 

In her soul, she could only feel hatred. Hatred being cast by the storm, hatred being cast by Sans. There was no mercy, only pain that had been building up, leading to total hatred for each other. Gaster was coming back on the surface of mercilessness. Maybe Papyrus was already gone. But he had to be there. She still remembered him, after all. 

Something could now be seen in the midst of the dark fighting storm. Surrounded by surging shadows and blue thunder, a white gooey face was becoming more unrecognizable with every second. Both of the eye sockets were shining blue, and the face was melting more and more into something she couldn’t comprehend.

But Undyne could still hear words, words that could only come through her soul. 

_“I am him.”_

She closed her eyes and focused on her soul and the steady rhythm of determination. She knew that Papyrus was still there, and he could get rid of the darkness on his own. Undyne focused on a message in her soul that could ignite him.

The blue hold on her soul was let go, and she opened her eyes to see Sans standing before her. Behind him, the storm was diminishing. He was fighting back. The burn in Sans’ left eye went out. “can you see him?”

She nodded and pointed to the gooey figure, who was now struggling with himself. The holed hands were covering his face as he tried harder and harder to take himself back. “That’s him right there. And Gaster doesn’t exist here.”

The little skeleton dropped his hands. Cracked lines ran on the right side of his face. His right eye was broken. Papyrus fell to the ground and the other face melted off of him. The storm was gone a second later. He just laid in a pool of black liquid, something that couldn’t hurt him anymore. 

Sans looked at his own hands and let out a quavering breath. “i almost killed him.”

“You were trying to hurt someone who was returning to this reality,” Undyne whispered. “But it’s okay. Papyrus got rid of it. It’s done now.”

She hoped with all of her soul that it was. 

  
  


I believe in you.

You are determined. 

And that’s not a bad thing.

Determination is a power. A fuel source.

It ignites the evil, harm, and darkness.

But it also ignites you.

And you are good.

You are great.

I am aware of where you came from, and where you’ve been.

But you are not him. 

You are still you.

And I believe in you.


	17. I Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone!

He woke up with holes in his hands. 

That was the first thing Papyrus noticed when he found himself back in his bed. He looked down and saw two perfect empty circles in each of his palms. He could never just be gone.

Papyrus looked from his hands to find that he wasn’t alone. The skeleton dog-like creature sat at the end of his bed. They didn’t look threatening anymore. Their hollowed out eyes were dark, cold, and sad. They also looked a lot smaller. 

When he raised a hand, the creature flinched back immediately. Papyrus lowered it and frowned. Was he the terrifying one now? He was the only one with holed hands. 

He lowered his head and murmured, “I’m sorry.” He felt like he was mostly apologizing to himself. Papyrus had been fighting himself and fearing his own shadows for too long. 

They both sat there motionlessly for a while before the creature crawled slowly across the blankets and put its head into Papyrus’ hands. He smiled and gently stroked the creature until it melted into blue light and vanished in thin air. 

He wore gloves now. He just felt like himself when he did. Papyrus knew that Gaster couldn’t do anything to him anymore, but the holes were just a reminder. And he didn’t want a reminder. 

When he got to the pink house, he knocked on the front door excitedly. No answer. He knocked again, but he was disappointed to find the same amount of silence. 

“She’s gone.”

Papyrus turned around to find Napstablook floating there a bit behind him. His head was lowered, but a small smile was formed beneath his big eyes. “But you’ll be seeing her on T.V… I guess.” He hastily added at the end, “She wanted to say thank you.”

He glanced back at the house. “She’s a star now?”

Napstablook lifted his head a little. “Yes. I… um, miss her already.”

“Me too.” Papyrus walked up to the ghost and gave him a small hug. It felt like hugging a mist. 

He skipped through the dark blue caves. The flowers echoed nearby, but their voices were kind and mystic instead of haunting. The stone stars around him shined with new life and energy. Papyrus entered a small clearing where Alphys was sitting on a tree stump, watching Undyne and Doggo practicing fighting together. 

Papyrus walked up to Alphys and she smiled to greet him. “How a-are you feeling?”

“Great.” Everything had died down in the last couple of days, and now he felt fine going around Snowdin and Waterfall like he used to. Sans went everywhere with him in the beginning but now even he was becoming more lenient. “How is it at the lab?”

“It’s getting better.” She looked at the dark stone ground. “In the basement, I’ve been learning and uncovering a lot. And everything down there is being taken care of.”

He nodded and glanced at Undyne and Doggo when they started yelling at each other. 

“Would you stop standing there and fight me already!?” Undyne crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. 

“I need you to attack me first so I can see you move!” Doggo howled in reply. 

“That’s such a stupid tactic!” She threw up her hands in rage. When she looked in Papyrus’ direction her expression completely changed. 

“Hey, punk!” She ran to Papyrus excitedly right when her eye spotted him. “How’s the greatest hero in the Underground?”

Papyrus chuckled while they hugged each other. “Nothing can stop the Great Papyrus!”

“I know,” she replied softly. “I can always believe in a hero like you.”

Doggo ran up next to Undyne and greeted him with a panting smile. “Hey, buddy. Are you here to train too?”

“That does sound like fun,” Papyrus rocked back and forth in his rainboots excitedly. “But I’m on my way to meet Sans.”

“Well anytime you do wanna train,” Undyne flexed her muscles casually, “Be sure to get me first. Doggo will just teach you how to stand there the whole day.” Doggo narrowed his eyes but held back any argument. 

He couldn’t help but ask a question that had been burning inside ever since he had hurt everyone. “You all still want to be my friend? After everything that I’ve-”

“Papyrus,” Undyne cut in quickly, “you saved us more than you know. You are a hero! We are all lucky to be your friends.”

“You better get that through your head, buddy,” Doggo informed, “You’re called the Great Papyrus for a reason.”

“Thank you.” Papyrus felt odd inside. A deep surge of gratefulness and exhilaration came through his soul and he suddenly had difficulty talking. “I- I, um, better go.” He strode past his friends and down the stone-lit tunnels to where the caves got larger and the stone stars cluttered closer together.

the lights are shining, casting down on you.

the world is dark, but i’m here.

when you dim, i shine brighter.

because i love you.

and i’m here for you always. 

you can count on that, because i’m making a promise.

when the world quavers, crumbles, darkens,

i’m here.

when you shiver, weep, stumble,

i’m here.

when they forget, i’ll remember.

i’ll remember so you don’t have to.

if you want, you can remember too.

i’m making a promise.

when you are in danger,

i’ll do everything to protect you.

and it’s not because I have to.

it’s because i want to.

when you look at yourself, and don’t like what you see,

i look at you and see everything that i adore.

when you are scared or upset,

i have all of me to give.

and i hope that it’s enough.

because i couldn’t give you enough before.

but now we can smile.

the lights are shining, casting down on me and you.

i’m here. i’m always here.

i promise.


End file.
